Each Choice Changes Reality
by Revina Aclarr
Summary: Harry Potter rather likes his life. He has a loving father, mother, and a twin, Caden, who happens to be the Boy Who Lived. But when he goes to Hogwarts, can Harry become his own person and accept being a Slytherin? AU
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

**I welcome you to this story, featuring two twins, a prophecy, a war, and perhaps some twists. Will Harry and Caden make it? **

**Notes: This story is completely AU, with Harry having been born with a twin, and a change in schooling for one of them later in the story. If you do not like that, well, hopefully this first story at least will captivate you to read on. I'm not going to follow the canon plotline for many of the books, and by the third book you will definetely see what I mean. I plan to make this story in 7 parts and judging by the amount of time I have, this should take me about 1-2 years. **

**Disclaimer: Any recognizable people, places, events, spells, and items belong to J.K. Rowling. I'm not, in any way, claiming ownership to anything but the words, actions, events, and characters that are my own. **

**I give credit to Lightning on the Wave for her Arc, The Sacrifices Arc, and to The Santi for his story, Harry Potter and the Boy Who Lived for inspiring this story. I assure you that I did not copy either of them. **

Oh yeah, and thanks to: **Hermoine Granger-Weasley and Cabin3Demigod for betaing this for me. You guys rock! **

* * *

><p><em>October <em>_31st__, 1983_

"Give me the boys."

"No." Grace Potter looked up at the Dark Lord stubbornly, every inch of her body screaming defiance.

Lord Voldemort smiled, enjoying the game they were playing. "No, m'dear, is a relative term. If you give me the boys now, I will spare yourself and your son if he proves that he knows how to keep out of my way."

Grace snorted. "Even if you _were_ known to keep your promises, I still wouldn't give them to you."

The boys were currently hiding in the attic of the house in Godric's Hollow, neither understanding what was happening. All Harry and Caden knew was that Grandma had told them to hide, to be silent and try and get out of the house. The boys' three year old minds had understood, if barely, that it was not a game of hide-and-seek and that the matter at hand was serious.

"You could have saved lives tonight by giving them up. Your husband will meet you wherever the dead lay, as well as your son and his filthy Mudblood wife." The Dark Lord smiled coldly.

Grace smiled as well, a smile of acceptance. "I will die happy knowing the twins are safe, knowing that you won't ever get to them."

The Dark Lord smiled. "As you wish." Twirling his wand, he murmured, "_Avada Kedavra_." The thrill of the spell flew throughout his body, leaving him what would have been giddy if he was still human and his soul still whole. He pointed his wand to the ceiling, where he was sure he'd heard light footsteps coming from before the conversation with the Potter matriarch. '_Homenum Revelio,' _he thought, carelessly aiming his wand towards the attic.

Up in the attic, Harry and Caden shivered at the feeling of something swooping over them. Both wanted to say 'I'm scared' but Grandma had told them to be quiet, so they settled for hugging each other fearfully, trying to keep themselves from making a noise.

However, they couldn't keep from whimpering when the attic door burst open, a steel-gazed man walking in with a cold smirk on his face. Tears began pouring from both their faces as he aimed his wand at them. This man wasn't a good person, they knew. Both wished their mother and father were there to make the bad man go away.

"_Avada Kedavra."_

A green light surrounded Caden before instantly rebounding off of an invisible shield to Lord Voldemort. Harry and Caden both shivered from the scream that left the man's mouth before he seemingly disappeared. A dark shadow appeared to wisp around the room, not helping either of the boys fear. They could feel that the bad man, though he couldn't be seen anymore, which made him even more scary to them. The shadow suddenly disappeared, and Harry and Caden both breathed a sigh of relief; the bad man was gone! The fear came back, though, when the wood and spells holding the roof up gave in. Debris fell around the boys, so they had no choice but to crawl under a musty old table Harry and Caden continued their frightful whimpering, and only stopped when a wood board slammed into their heads, leaving them both unconscious.

* * *

><p>"Harry! Caden!" Lily Potter ran frantically into her destroyed home, tears running down her face at the doubt of their survival. Her husband followed her, desperately calling both of the twin's names. The husband and wife scoured the ground floor for their sons, neither remembering any spells that could possibly be useful. When Albus Dumbledore arrived ten minutes later, he cast the Body Revealing charm and three blue glows were visible to him<p>

"Lily! James! There's a body in the nursery and two in the attic!" Dumbledore called. He walked briskly up the stairs, Lily treading behind him, and leaving James to check on the body in the nursery that, judging by the size of the glow he had seen, was most likely his mother. A single table was left standing in the ruins, though beneath the table was hidden with debris.

Lily instantly came to her senses and cast a Debris-Clearing charm, more tears pouring down her face when she saw one baby with dark red wavy hair and another with black messy hair under the table, both unconscious but breathing. "_Enervate_," she murmured through her tears, first at Harry then to Caden. She frowned when she saw the blood dripping down Caden's forehead, murmuring _'Tergeo' _to clear it off, revealing a lightning bolt shaped wound. Lily frowned for a momentbefore casting _'Scabiem.' _The wound stopped bleeding, but Lily frowned as it didn't scab over like wounds usually did after that spell, but decided that both boys were safe at the moment, and whatever Voldemort had done to them was done and over with, because they were both alive, against all odds.

Lily, tears of joy running down her face, held both boys in her arms, a smile that couldn't disappear on her face, even if Harry and Caden were crying at the moment, in her arms. She refused to let them go when Dumbledore, who was worried she would drop the boys due to uncontrollable shaking, offered to carry them. She wasn't going to let them go for a while.

"James! They're alive!" Lily shouted, overjoyed. She had her boys back and more importantly, they were safe.

* * *

><p><em>November <em>_12th__, 1983_

"So Caden's the one the prophecy spoke of?" Lily said as she worriedly stroked her son's auburn hair, lifting up his fringe to see the lightning bolt scar that rested on his forehead. James, holding Harry in his lap, had a very disturbed expression on his face, though that could have been from the fact that Harry had had a broken jawbone.

James paused in stroking Harry's hair, looking up curiously at his former Headmaster. "How are you sure that it's not Harry?" Dumbledore smiled at James, opening the cabinet that held his Pensieve and drawing out a memory. The figure of Sybill Trelawney appeared above it in a misty form, reciting the prophecy.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..."

Dumbledore motioned to Caden, who was resting in his mother's arms, looking around the Headmasters office in curiosity. "Caden has been marked by the killing curse. And to be frank with the two of you, Harry is quite lucky. When the Dark Lord comes back-"

James now looked alarmed and Lily mimicked his shock. "Back?" James demanded. "He's dead, isn't he?"  
>Dumbledore blinked, realizing he was ahead of himself. "Forgive me, I forgot to explain," he said. "Lord Voldemort-"He pointedly ignored the cringes both Lily and James made at the name. "-has taken steps to immortality, if I am right. A rebounded killing curse cannot kill him; he has made sure of this."<p>

James and Lily both knew by the look on his face that Dumbledore would not give them any further insight on the Dark Lord's current state and possible immortality

"Alright…" James said slowly.

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling for the first time that day. "As I was saying, Caden is in a very unfortunate position. He will be sought after by the Dark Lord and will eventually be expected to finish him off, whether he decides to pursue him or not." He hastily continued at the looks of anger on both of their faces, "He will grow up under the pressure of fame he will no doubtedly have, and you two must keep both of them from becoming spoiled. Treat both of them equally."

Lily adopted an indignant expression. "I have some things to say regarding this prophecy, but do you honestly believe that we wouldn't treat them equally?"

Dumbledore ran a hand through his beard, sighing nervously.

"Fame has negative influences on the best people. Fame means power, and power can easily be misused. Personally, I do not believe that you two would do so, but I know…others who have fallen into the trap." For a moment, the Headmaster looked to be in another world, remembering different times, places, and people.

Lily opened her mouth to continue her argument, but James decided it would be best to interrupt at that moment.

"Can we get back on topic?" he asked.

"Of course we can, my dear boy," Dumbledore said, realizing that he had drifted from what he had meant to talk about with the two. "Lily, is that fine with you?"

About to open her mouth in disagreement, she paused, a smile tugging on her lips, when Caden angrily stated, "I wan' Harry!" He was bored of the adults talking, or so it seems.

"Honey, Harry can't play right now. He's sleeping." Lily replied softly. Just then, Harry woke up in his father's arms and looked for Caden, "I wan' Caden!" he said, pouting when his father started laughing. Caden mimicked his brother, pouting as well, leaving even the angry Lily giggling.

"All right, you two can play with each other. Can it wait five minutes though?" Lily said, stroking Caden's scar.

James, noticing the almost subconscious movement, looked at the scar in curiosity. "Wait…The scar is where the killing curse hit Caden, right?" At Dumbledore's nod, James continued, "If the killing curse hit him, how on Earth did he survive?"

Dumbledore looked serious for once as he stared at James through his half moon lenses, eyes watering the tiniest bit. "Love. A grandmother's love."

* * *

><p><em>November 2st<em>_, 1983_

"Prongs! Finally! I've been telling them it wasn't me for ages, and I've been worried sick about the twins!" Sirius Black stood up from his cell, his annoyance at the legal system clear when he 'accidentally' almost tripped the guard opening his cell.

"Sorry mate, we've been a bit busy…." James trailed off, grabbing Sirius' arm and Apparating to Hogsmeade.

"Peter was the spy."

Sirius' disbelief was unmistakable in his face. "Peter Pettigrew? Wormtail? Our Wormtail, the chubby and short one who has a killer 'Expelliarmus'? Are you sure? Maybe he was tortured for the information or something…"

"He wasn't," James replied. "We have him in custody, he admitted to letting You-Know-Who into Godric's Hollow and being the spy."

Sirius looked horrified." I'm so sorry mate…"

James looked at his best friend curiously. "What do you have to say sorry for?"

"I'm the one who suggested making him secret keeper!"

James rolled his eyes. "It wasn't your fault, and we both know that."

Sirius still had a very guilty expression, that was soon replaced by one of intense worry. Stepping in front of James, he said, "If You-Know-Who came to your house, what happened to the twins?" His face was filled with dread, and seemed to think he knew the answer already. "No. No, they can't be dead! It's my fault!"

"Sirius."

"They're dead, aren't they?"Sirius said worriedly.

James smirked. "No, Caden reflected the Killing Curse. Voldemort's gone, for now."

Sirius's face lit up, mind content on ignoring the voice in his head that screamed, 'That's not possible'_._ "If you're joking with me, I _will_ kill you," he said.

Leading him over to the Three Broomsticks, James chuckled softly. "Why on Earth would I lie about my children? Come on, I'll explain it to you over a drink."

* * *

><p>"Frank and Alice are dead?"<p>

Albus Dumbledore replied, "Not dead, just…well…They were forced into insanity by multiple Cruciatus Curses." The twinkle left Dumbledore's eyes again, a glimmer of sadness pooling in his eyes. Dumbledore did not like it when members of the Order-or anyone, really—passed or were seriously injured.

"Who?" Lily paced in his office, angrily thinking of ways to get revenge on whichever Death Eater had done such a horrible thing to the Longbottoms. They were such a nice couple!

"Bellatrix Lestrange and Barty Crouch Jr."

Lily froze, gaping at her old Headmaster. "Are you serious?" She frowned. "Barty Crouch Jr.?" At Dumbledore's nod, she laughed bitterly. "The press is going to have a field day with that! Especially that horrid woman, Rita Skeeter."

Dumbledore laughed. "I wouldn't call her as horrid as she is determined and cunning. It is a trait among Slytherins, after all."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Of course it is." Standing up, she said, "Excuse me, Dumbledore. I hope you don't mind, but I have a trip to the Longbottoms' to make."

Eyes twinkling again, he replied, "I presume it's to make arrangements with Augusta so the boys can all play sometime?"

Tilting her head in confusion, Lily wondered out loud, "How on Earth do you do that?"

'I should have expected that,' she thought when the only reply she got was Dumbledore's kind, knowing smile.

* * *

><p>"James!" Lily shouted, looking around the bar for her husband. "There you are!" Pulling a chair over to his and Sirius' table, she continued, "We need to sort some things out now, and for heaven's sake, please tell me you aren't drunk." Looking warily at the almost empty bottles of Firewhisky in front of him, she sighed before pulling James up and leading him to the Floo to go to Hogwarts. Repeating the gesture with Sirius, she followed them, all the while muttering things like, 'stupid men and their obsession with alcohol.'<p>

Once in Dumbledore's office, she glanced pleadingly at him for help with the two now drunk men. Chuckling, he said, "How did your business with the Longbottoms go?"

"Well, I wouldn't know. I haven't gone over to the Longbottoms, yet," Lily commented. "I just realized we don't exactly have a house now."

Dumbledore blinked. He had completely forgotten the extent of the damage to their house in Godric's Hollow. "If you need any help with finding a new one, please tell me," he said finally. "You are all welcome to stay in one of the guest rooms in the Administrative Quarters at Hogwarts until then."

"Thank you, Albus." Lily smiled. "Do you think we could have our old house fixed?" Lily's eyes had a glimmer of hope in them; she loved Godric's Hollow.

"Most likely not. There is dark magic inside the house, and that is not where you'd want to live."

"Well then we'll most likely buy from the Muggle market," Lily said, sighing. "Or maybe we can get a wizarding architect to help." The soft smile on her face disappeared when she looked over at James, who was completely plastered. "And I'll need James' help with the details, of course. And he'll need to be sober, for one."

James chose this moment to mumble, "'m not drunk."

Dumbledore looked at all three of his students with a twinkle in his eye yet again. He was, of course, rather amused by the whole thing.

"I'm sorry, Dumbledore. Do you think that Poppy has any hangover potions in stock?"

Pulling out a small vial from one of his many desk drawers, Dumbledore replied, "I have some right here. Someone told me I would need some today, and it seems that they were correct."

Lily looked at her former Headmaster oddly before splitting the vial between both men.

Both James and Sirius groaned when they saw Lily's stern and disapproving face. "All right?" she said.

"Sorry, Lils. I didn't mean to get this drunk." Lily glared at her husband, shooting him a 'We'll talk later' look.

"Neither did I!" Lily snorted in disbelief at Sirius; his favorite pastime was getting drunk! Well, except for shagging a random woman. Both of those tied.

Looking at her husband, she replied with a smirk on her face, "Well, now that our house is ruined, we need a new one." James groaned, knowing the punishment he had coming. "You get to come with me to every single one."

"Oww…" Sirius complained when Lily hit the back of his head. She paid him no mind; it was his fault for laughing, after all.

* * *

><p><em>December <em>_23rd__, 1983_

"I hope you like your new home, Mr. and Mrs. Potter."

Lily smiled at the architect who had offered his services for free after hearing from James that the Potter's needed a new home. All James and Lily were expected to do was provide the materials. The architect was a proud old man, having built many pureblood manors, and was famed among the wizarding world for his exquisite work. "The house is beautiful, Mr. Waller. Thank you, so much for making Dovehall for us," Lily said, smiling at him.

"It was my pleasure, Mrs. Potter." The architect bowed once before walking briskly to one of the many fireplaces scattered throughout the building. He used a bit of Floo powder and disappeared in an instant.

It was a large home, far too large for a single family, really. The inside of Dovehall was peaceful after its namesake, the house open and carefree with various portraits scattered on the walls. The residents of each portrait had yet to appear, but Dumbledore had assured them that whoever they were, they would be useful.

Leading to the second floor and the loft, James noted with appreciation that there was a majestic staircase that moved each time wanted it to (courtesy of Albus Dumbledore). The second floor consisted of a large circle with seven of twelve doors labeled: The largest door had James and Lily written on it, and then there were three doors next to each other labeled Harry, Caden, and Neville. The door next to the one with Neville written on it was labeled Augusta. Both rooms were in return of the favor Augusta had done them, letting the Potter's stay with them while Dovehall was being built. A door away from Augusta's room, there were two doors labeled Sirius and Remus, paw prints carved next to each of their names.

The remaining five doors were two guest rooms and three bathrooms. As the staircase moved upwards to the loft, James and Lily exchanged excited grins. The house was as perfect as they had expected it to be.

The loft had a balcony that overlooked the large garden in the backyard, where a light dusting of snow covered the grass. A few deer peered out from the western edge of the forest surrounding the house, and rabbit tracks could be seen upon close observation of the garden.

"James?" Lily asked as they walked into their new home, her head resting upon his shoulder. Behind them, you could hear Sirius and Remus' voices intertwined with Harry and Caden's happy laughter.

"Yeah, Lils?"

"I love you, you know that?"

James smiled at his wife, happy with himself. It paid to know the right people, especially the person who had designed and built many pureblood manors. It was quite a bonus that Lily's anger at him for getting drunk had completely disappated.

* * *

><p><em>August <em>_21st__, 1986_

Lily smiled at her sons pleadingly. "Harry, Caden, can't you ever sit still? Just for one picture?"

Both sons gave her dubious faces.

Lily grinned in triumph, having taken a picture. It wasn't what she had wanted a picture of originally-a picture of them smiling and hugging with Dovehall's surrounding forest as a backdrop- but it would do. "Yes!"

"What did you win today?" James murmured into her ear, having walked up behind her.

"Well, at first, I was trying to get them to take a sweet picture to send Tuney-oh, stop it James, she isn't that awful-and Augusta, Professor Dumbledore, of course—he would want to know how they're doing— and Padfoot and Moony, and—"

"Honey, I know who you would send a picture to." James smiled at his wife fondly before kissing her lightly. A chorus of "eww!" came from the twins.

Lily smiled back at her husband. "Well, anyway, I was attempting to take a picture, and, well, you know how they are. They refused to. So when they both gave me a 'look', I took a picture and it's absolutely adorable." She showed him the picture, which was indeed adorable: two pouty little boys with Dovehall in the background.

"I'm not adorable! I'm a big boy!" said Caden indignantly, standing up. Harry, sitting on the grass, nodded in agreement.

Lily and James both looked at each other before laughing.

This, of course, only made Caden more angry.

"Mum!" Harry smiled, proud of himself for figuring out that saying 'Mummy' would most likely be more of a 'baby' thing to do.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I lost control, as a mother." Harry and Caden nodded. That was true. "Of course you two are big boys. "

Both nodded again, this time with their hands on their hips. Lily managed to keep from laughing, though James wasn't as lucky and received glares from two angry six year old twins

* * *

><p><em>May 5, 1989<em>

"Mummy, what's a Parselmouth?"

Lily looked up from her book at her dark-haired son, startled. "Well, honey, it's a person who can speak to snakes. They aren't very good people, like Voldemort."

"Oh. So Parselmouths are always bad people?" Harry inquired.

"Yes. They usually are very dark wizards." Lily set her book to the side and motioned for Harry to sit on her lap, surprised when he shook his head vehemently and practically ran out of the room.

A moment later James entered the living room, where Lily was staring in confusion at the doorway through which Harry had ran.

"What's wrong with Harry?" he asked. "I asked him for a hug, and he looked at me like he was about to cry and determined not to at the same time."

"I have no idea."

* * *

><p>Harry ran to his room, stressed. In his head, he could hear his mother's voice: 'They are very dark wizards.'<br>'I'm not a dark wizard! Am I?_'_ he thought.

* * *

><p>Harry walked outside to the boundary of the forest and the yard, ready to confront the snake who had spoken to him earlier that day and ruined his thoughts of himself as a Good Wizard.<p>

"_Welcome back, speaker of my tongue."_

Harry looked around worriedly before lying on the grass next to the snake. The grass was fading from the lush green it had been in the summer. Instead, Harry noted with annoyance, there were far too many leaves that poked your back and got stuck in your clothes.

"_I don't want to speak your tongue. Can you make it go away?"_ Harry begged.

The snake reared upwards, leaving Harry afraid of his parents seeing it. He frantically pushed him down with the palm of his hand, receiving a hiss in return.

_"Why would you want to be rid of the ability?"_ the snake hissed angrily. _"It is a treasure to speak with snakes, the most majestic of creatures."_

Harry backtracked, not wishing to anger the small serpent. _"I'm sorry. I just don't want to because my kind doesn't think of it that way."_

The snake gave an odd sort of noise that in human terms could possibly be thought of as a snort.

_"Your kind is very strange. The snakes have their own magic, and their own traditions, and they are killed. We endure it, prevent the death of each of our kinds, and your kind kills each other for sport. I shouldn't be talking to you, if it is a matter of pride."_

Harry twitched. The snake,though beautiful like the rest of the animals in Dovehall with scales that were an emerald green with gold dancing over each in the sunlight, was very annoying.

_"I don't want this ability. I love my…kind, not yours, and I want it taken away_," Harry sighed.

The snake laughed, each hiss higher than the last.

_"Even if I knew how to, I would not. I do not believe it is possible."_

Harry's eyes hardened._ "Then I have nothing further to speak to you about."_ Harry stood, brushing grass off his trousers, and began to walk away.

The snake reared angrily. _"I do not like you. You do not walk away from a snake, for fear you will become its prey."_

Harry ignored the snake's hisses. It couldn't do anything to him, it was simply a small snake, and it had told him that it wasn't poisonous the conversation before his with Lily's.

'I won't ever speak snake-tongue again.'

* * *

><p><em>June <em>_11th__, 1989_

"Tag! You're it!" Harry ran gleefully from his friend Neville, who immediately began chasing Caden in the other direction.

Harry watched Caden run from Neville, laughing. Harry stayed in one spot, only moving if Neville got too close to him. The game was fun, but it was a lot more so to be the one laughing at 'It' and the person whom he was chasing.

"I'm going to get you, Harry!" Neville proclaimed, changing directions. Harry instantly ran farther away, keeping track of Caden in the corner of his eye, and trying to run towards him at the same time. His attempt to make Caden a closer target didn't work; Caden ran as soon as he saw Harry running to him.

Harry was laughing when he heard it, Neville having just missed him.

_"Speaker."_

Harry paled, jarring to a halt. He ignored Neville managing to tag him, saying, "Err….I'm tired. Do you guys want to go in—"

Harry was cut off by his worry for Caden, who tripped as he ran towards them, wondering why Harry wasn't attempting to chase after him or Neville. As he stood up, three snakes darted up his body. One possessively wrapped itself around his neck and the other two rested on his arms, their fangs bared and above Caden's pulse points.

Caden's scream brought Lily, James, and Augusta running from the house, wands outstretched and curses ready to leave their lips.

Lily was the first to see the snakes wrapped around Caden. "Caden, sweetie, just stay very still."

_"Staying still does not help when a snake attacks, except for the chokers, and we are not so."_ Harry did his best to ignore what the snake on his twin's throat was hissing.

James aimed his wand at the snakes. "Lils, what curses are good for snakes?"

"I don't know! Usually, the ones in Britain aren't easily provoked, and if they are, not like this!"

James rolled his eyes impatiently. "Then what usually happens?"

_"We attack, we poison, we eat, we kill."_ Harry gulped. There had to be a way out that didn't make him a Dark Wizard, but would ensure Caden's safety.

Lily looked at the snake. "Nothing good! Augusta, do you know anything?"

_"We are resistant to the spells. The snake you were rude to picked us for that reason. The only way to get us off is for you to order us to, Speaker, as the snake you wronged told us to. Will you speak?"_

Augusta looked at Neville worriedly, as if checking him for any possible snakes before moving her gaze back to Caden. "No, "she said slowly, "This kind of snake is magic resistant. It's a magical one, a Rainbowscale snake. It's poisonous." Caden paled further, his breathing coming in short, panicked puffs.

_"Speak the word, Speaker, and we won't bite."_ The snake, seemingly taunting Harry, pressed its teeth against Caden's neck. Caden gave a strangled cry.

'There isn't a way around speaking, unless I want Caden dead.' Harry closed his eyes in regret "_Stop,"_ he hissed. Each eye turned to Harry with horror.

_"Stop what, Speaker,"_ the snake asked, almost obnoxiously.

_"Threatening my brother, you—"_Harry took a deep breath. _"Please stop. Just…get off my brother."_  
>The snake on Caden's right wrist spoke up. <em>"Should I bite, sir? Can I poison?"<em> Eagerly, the snake gently prodded Caden's wrist with its teeth. Caden looked at Harry in betrayal and fear.

Harry's eyes widened before he snarled, _"Get the hell off my brother! You can slither on me, but not on anyone else!"_

The snake hiss-laughed. _"Yes, the Hisser you wronged will be pleased. You will have to meet with her; she will always be hiding in the grass, stalking her prey. Under the sun, of course, as is natural of her, my nest-bearers snake relation, a Sunweaver. She shall always bask under the light."_

Harry glared at the snake, refusing to meet anyone else's eyes. _"Get off. Now."_

"Harry?" Lily asked cautiously.

Harry never let his eyes leave the snakes, which were still stubbornly sprawled out in their positions on Caden.

_"They'll be gone in a-"_

"_You are speaking in our tongue, Speaker. Until we meet again."_ The snakes, one by one, slithered down Caden's body, leaving him pale and shaking. James instantly caught Caden as he fainted, stroking his son's dark auburn hair.

Lily ran to Harry, ready to give him a hug. Harry shoved her away, running across the garden to the house.

* * *

><p>"Harry, has this been what you were worried about for the past month?"<p>

'Of course it is. I'm a Dark Wizard, and now you all know!_'_ he thought. Outwards, he nodded, tears running down his cheeks.

"Harry, I don't think any less of you for being a Parselmouth." Harry shook off the instinct in his brain that automatically wanted to correct his mother and say _'Speaker'_ instead.

"I don't, I really don't. You're my son, Harry, my baby." Lily's hand soothingly rubbed Harry's back.

Harry spoke quietly, so softly that Lily had to strain to hear his words. "You said that all…Parselmouths are Dark Wizards."

Lily stiffened. "Harry. Harry. Look at me." She shifted on Harry's bed so Harry could see her eyes and all the love in them. "I love you, and while I did say that, I obviously didn't know any Parselmouths, other than Voldemort. You, Harry, will never be a Dark Wizard. You're too kind, too caring, and love us all too much to ever be able to become a monster."

Harry moved his eyes so he could look directly at her eyes. After seeing the truth in them, he enveloped her in a hug. "Thank you," he whispered.

"Sweetie, there's no need to thank me for saying the truth and only the truth. Now, let's go downstairs, and meet with everyone." Seeing Harry stiffen again, she added, "They won't think any less of you, either. You're still Harry, our Harry."

* * *

><p><em>July <em>_30th__, 1990_

"Just think, Harry, Neville! In a year, we'll be getting our Hogwarts letters!" Caden said enthusiastically.

Harry grinned. "Yeah, it will be amazing. We can actually get out of Dovehall and Longbottom Manor—"

"Well," Neville interrupted, "Last time you guys went to Diagon Alley, you had a mob of people wanting Caden's autograph. And then there was Rita Skeeter, who somehow got your conversation about how annoying the press was on parchment and used it to say you were antisocial, Caden, and that Harry was just a tag-a-long to Caden and agreed with everything he said. So maybe it's best to stay here and in Longbottom Manor."

Harry glared at Neville and in his head, an imaginary Rita Skeeter blew up in a mental explosion. He hated that article, and anyone who said that Caden practically owned him because he was the Boy-Who-Lived. It was a complete lie; they were brothers, and best friends, and Caden most certainly did not own him!

"I hate Rita Skeeter," Harry said, the annoyed expression on his face that was always present at the mention of Rita Skeeter on his face.

"We know you do, Harry. We know," Caden said softly, "You ranted about it for ages after that article came out."

Harry huffed. "Well, you would too." A moment later, a grin appeared on his face.

"Harry?" Caden asked worriedly.

"Nothing, just a thought." Harry refused to elaborate.

Maybe it wasn't so bad after all. Really, if everyone thought he was just some pet of his brother's then he could prove them wrong, because that's what they were. Completely bloody _wrong_.

* * *

><p><strong>Hopefully, I will have the next chapter up tomorrow or the next day. I can't promise this for all chapters, but I don't think I have too much going on this week, so I should be able to update soon. Thanks for reading this! <strong>

**-Revina **


	2. The Start of It All

**Chapter 1: The Start of It All **

**I've been getting reviews wondering how Harry can speak Parseltongue if Caden was hit with the curse. **

**Erm. I can't tell you that, yet. Sorry! Umm, if you stick around until the 6th story, it's planned for me to tell there. Some clues will definetely appear in the fifth story though, if that helps...**

**Oh, and yes, Caden was hit with the Killing Curse, not Harry. **

**Thanks for all the reviews, alerts and favorites!**

* * *

><p><em>September 1st, 1991<em>

"_Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty_ Hogwarts," the Potter males belted. Lily, who was bent over the stove, occasionally speaking a charm or spell, tried to ignore them, but soon deemed it impossible considering that the three were currently marching around the kitchen, arm in arm, singing the song for around the tenth time.

Lily snapped.

"For heaven's sake, sing _outside _of the kitchens!" James, Caden, and Harry ignored her. "Fine, then. I won't make breakfast if you don't get out." They froze, gaping at Lily.

James spoke up first. "You are a cruel person." Lily raised an eyebrow. "Fine." He grabbed the two boys and started another verse, this time marching out into the living room.

Shaking her head, Lily went back to her cooking, humming along to the school song.

"-_Just do your best, we'll do the rest, and learn until our brains all_ _rot-"_

* * *

><p>After some tearful goodbyes and a long train ride, Caden, Neville and Harry were at Hogwarts, looking around in a fascinated manner at the flame lit, grandiose room they were currently being led through by a witch who had introduced herself as Professor McGonagall. She then led them to a small chamber off of the Entrance Hall, and began telling them a bit about Hogwarts. After she left for a moment, Harry and Caden turned to a boy named Ron that they had met on the train, and engaged him in conversation. Their talk, however, was occasionally interrupted by a Muggleborn witch named Hermione. They had met on the train, and found her endearingly annoying. Thus, she joined them on the boat ride as Neville had decided to join some Hufflepuffs he had met in the loo.<p>

Their current topic of conversation was Hogwarts. Harry and Caden told Ron about various things they had heard from Augusta, Lily and James. In other words, they were happily sharing rumors and secrets they had heard about or tried to pry from their parents such as the secret passageways Sirius had mentioned, to Lily's annoyance, and wherethe kitchens were. As it turned out, Ron didn't know very much about the school at all, not having even heard of the secret passages. The teachers, he knew about, but as for the castle itself, he was nearly clueless.

Harry and Caden knew slightly more as they had visited Hogwarts once when they had been six. Their mother and father had had to talk to Professor Dumbledore and the twins had spent the whole time running around, attempting to play tag. It failed when the two lost each other, and had to wait for their father to find them. Neither of them had any idea how he did so, though their mother had been seen taking an old parchment from him, scolding him on 'giving them ideas'. To that day, both twins were trying to find out what on earth their mother had been attempting to keep from them.

"How d'you reckon we get sorted?" Ron asked, talking to no one in particular.

Scowling, Caden replied, "No clue. Mum and Dad refused to tell me and Harry, since apparently it's a tradition." (All three ignored the bushy haired girl named Hermione, who had come with them on the boat, reminding them that it was "Harry and I.")

"Well, my brother Fred said it hurts a lot, but I reckon he's joking."

"I don't think they'd make us do anything painful," Caden said lightly. "Professor Dumbledore wouldn't let us get hu-"Harry gasped, interrupting his brother's sentence, when around twenty ghosts floated through the back wall, seemingly arguing about someone named Peeves. That caused something in Harry's memory to flicker, but he couldn't figure out _what _exactly. While trying to figure out _how _he knew that name, a ghost wearing a ruff and tights noticed the first years and inquired, "I say, what are you all doing here?"

A ghost who looked like a fat little monk chuckled at the ghost wearing the ruff, saying, "New students! About to be sorted, I suppose?" The ghost got a few timid nods in reply. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house, you know."

Harry and Caden snorted in their minds.

At the ghost who had spoken's words, Neville pushed past a couple of people to get to Harry, Caden, and Ron. "You three won't mind if I was a 'puff, would you?" All three looked at him with bugged eyes.

"Why would you want to be a Hufflepuff?" Ron said, voicing all of their opinions except Hermione's, who gave an indignant huff at the rudeness of the statement.

Neville rolled his eyes in response. "The people I went off with—Justin, Hannah, and Ernie-are quite nice really, but they're all convinced that they're going to be 'puffs and will be bullied by the rest of you. Besides, my mum was a Hufflepuff, so Gran probably wouldn't think it's me being one as bad."

Harry blinked. "All right, mate, if you really want to, I suppose." He smiled at his friend, not for one minute believing that Neville would be sorted into Hufflepuff.

Neville's reply was cut off by Professor McGonagall speaking in a sharp voice, "Move along now. The Sorting Ceremony is about to start." By then, the last ghost had gone through the other wall.

"Now get into line and follow me." The professor walked out of the antechamber, motioning for the first years to follow her. Harry got into line with Caden behind him and Neville in front. Ron was in front of Neville with Hermione in front of all of them. They quickly walked their way through the Entrance Hall back to the double doors where inside, if you listened closely, you could hear murmurs from the older students.

Inside, the Great Hall was much more exquisite yet stranger than anything any of the first years had seen before, especially the Muggleborns. The group walked past the table with green and silver striped ties, another with a raven proudly emblazoned on each person's robes before they turned and started walking towards the table with all the staff. To their left sat Neville's future house (If he, somehow, was sorted into Hufflepuff), a badger encased in yellow and black on their left breast of the Hufflepuff students' robes. The last table was most likely Gryffindor; the twins couldn't see the occupants' from the distance at which they were standing. Ron had told them that three of his brothers were in that house currently, and no other table seemed to have any red haired, freckled boys, so the three boys sitting at the table matching Ron's looks only added to the conclusion that the table was indeed Gryffindor.

Harry stared at the people sitting at the tables, daring them in his mind to think he was a slave. He was _better _than that, damn it! He jumped a bit, thrown out of his thoughts, when he heard a voice singing_, "Oh, you may think that I'm not so pretty…"_

Many first years were craning their necks around the people in front of them to try and see who was singing. When eventually they saw exactly what was, Harry, Ron, and Caden along with a few other students who had been worried about the sorting had outraged expressions on their faces; all they had to do was try on a hat?

"Abbott, Hannah!" Harry tapped Neville's shoulder, tilting his head in question. Neville nodded in reply to Harry's unspoken question: Is that one Hannah from your boat?

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat called, and if Harry leaned a little to the left, he could see the corner of Neville's lips turn in a broad smile.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Harry tuned out the sorting, thinking about how Gryffindor would be. Somewhere in his mind, he registered that 'Brown, Lavender!' was the first in his parents' house, but he was too busy trying to figure out how he and his twin's lives would be in Hogwarts.

He snapped out of it when 'Granger, Hermione!' was called. Harry still wasn't sure what house she would be in, but Ravenclaw seemed like an awful good fit.

"GRYFFINDOR!" Harry blinked. He hadn't expected that, at all.

Harry paid a little more attention to the sorting after Hermione was sorted, knowing that Neville was coming up soon. Harry _still_ didn't understand why Neville wanted to be a Hufflepuff, but if the hat listened to Neville, then he might actually become one. Of course, he could change his mind, but Neville wouldn't do that to his new friends.

Finally came, 'Longbottom, Neville!' The hat took a long time, almost two minutes, to decide, but eventually, in what seemed like (It could have been Harry's imagination) a resigned yet surprised tone, it called, "HUFFLEPUFF!" The yellow and black table cheered loudly, and when Harry turned to Caden, his twin had a mirrored expression of disbelief on his face. "He actually went through with it!" Caden murmured, wide eyed.

Harry laughed. "Neville loves helping others, it seems."

"Malfoy, Draco!" Harry's upper lip curled. They had met him on the train when he had promptly made fun of Ron's family and offered his friendship, of which he seemed convinced was very valuable to Harry and Caden.

"SLYTHERIN!" Malfoy looked rather pleased that the hat had yelled this less than a second after it rested on his head.

Then McGonagall called Caden. Instantly, the whispers coated the almost-silence that was usually present after a name was called. 'Caden Potter?' 'The Caden Potter?' 'It's the Boy-Who-Lived!'

"GRYFFINDOR!" The table with many red haired boys cheered loudly. Two twins who were obviously Ron's brothers were yelling "We got Potter, We got Potter!"

"Potter, Harry!" Harry struggled not to snort when the whispers completely died down. 'Of course,' he thought, a tad bitterly. He ignored the stares he was getting, determined to get to the hat without yelling at everyone to stop looking at him in fascination and pity. He refrained from doing so by thinking of how much _trouble _he would get in if he were to do so. He was being sorted, after all. To others, it would seem normal that people were staring at him, as people always did to the person being sorted.

Soon, Harry was looking at the blank inside of the hat, it being just a little too big to fit around his head properly. _"Hmm. You have a sense of loyalty, much like your Hufflepuff friend, though perhaps not as great as his. Not Hufflepuff, then. You don't have the thirst of knowledge most Ravenclaw's seem to have…You are quite brave, as well as cunning and resourceful. Where to put you…"_ Harry tried to imagine mentally shrugging, smiling when it worked.

"_Oh? What's this_?" The hat seemed to be looking through his memories, and had apparently found an interesting one. "Oh, I have no doubt where to place you…"Harry's eyes widened, he better not be—"SLYTHERIN!"

The hat was removed from his head, and he struggled not to have a look of shock on his face. The Hall was very silent, when suddenly a round of whispers made their way through the hall, Harry pointedly trying to ignore what they had to say.

Making his way slowly to the table on the opposite side of the Hall as his brother, he sat down on the end, across from Malfoy. Looking over at the other side of the room, he saw Neville and Caden looking frozen in shock from their respective new tables. Neville recovered after a moment, adopting a contemplating expression. Soon after, he smiled at Harry.

'Neville doesn't hate me, Neville doesn't hate me..,' rang through his mind, a gust of relief passing through him. The gust turned into a storm when he saw Caden nod at him, a terribly conflicted smile directed at him, but still a smile nonetheless.

Exhaling in relief, Harry continued to watch the sorting, openly ignoring the Slytherins around him. The line of first years had shrunk to four people, 'Thomas, Dean' who, Harry noted bitterly, was a Gryffindor; 'Turpin, Lisa' who was a Ravenclaw; and then Ron. He, like the rest of his brothers that were present, was in Gryffindor as well, leaving Harry upset. It was a bit selfish to want one of his friends in an unfamiliar House with him, even though he and Ron had a premature friendship, but Harry couldn't help it.

After a black boy with slanted eyes who Harry had missed the name of was sorted into Slytherin, Professor Dumbledore stood up and said, "Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! I am quite glad I am to see all of our new First Years sorted." He cast a significant glance at Harry. "-and before we start our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

Harry turned back to his new house's table and promptly started eating the sausages, his favorite food. He ignored Malfoy's criticism of Dumbledore ("Utterly mad, why he's Headmaster, nobody knows.") and the fact that there were quite a few first years staring at him.

Five minutes later, when he could still feel the eyes on him, he asked coldly, "Is there a reason you are all staring at me instead of eating?"

"No reason, we are just taking in the first Slytherin Potter in a century," Malfoy drawled.

"Shut up, Malfoy." He noticed, rather happily, that Malfoy's face was scandalized at those words and struggled to keep in a snort. It was rather easy, since the Bloody Baron soon came and sat in the empty space next to him, and Harry had to struggle not to stare at his bloodied ghostly torso.

The boy across from Harry, Blaise Zabini, had an even harder time doing so. His eyebrows were furrowed as he looked at the wound where it looked like a knife had plunged into the Bloody Baron's chest and his mouth opened and closed, indecisive on whether or not to ask. In the end, he kept his mouth shut.

Harry managed to ignore his Housemates' conversations, instead focusing on his food. He cut his sausages with precision, imagining each place where he cut to be the speaking person of the moment's face.

"-I don't think they should even let the other sort in," Draco exclaimed. "Did you see that bushy haired Mudblood?" '_You can talk and complain to Caden later. And you can ask Dad, Padfoot, and Moony for help with revenge later, too.' "_She ran to the hat, can you believe it? It's so…distasteful."

Harry gritted his teeth. It was becoming hard to keep his mouth shut. Really, had Malfoy swaggered to the hat any less distastefully?

"I think only the purebloods should be let in, and _maybe _some half-bloods." Draco's statement was echoed by Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson.

Harry couldn't take it any longer; staying quiet was harder than one would think. "What, so we can have more stuck-up purebloods in Hogwarts?" He gave the blonde a significant glance. "We would be _so_ much better off with people insisting that we should kill every single Muggleborn and Muggle there is, right?"

The smirk was on Malfoy's face yet again. "Exactly."

* * *

><p>Over at the Gryffindor table, the conversation wasn't as antagonistic, except to Caden, Ron, and Hermione. And Dean Thomas.<p>

"I can't believe your brother is a snake! He must've been the loner in the family…"

"Dean, my brother is still my best friend," Caden retorted. "Now, shut up."

Ron decided to add his input. "Really, mate, he's a decent bloke. Nothing like the rest of those Slytherins."

"Then why would he be sorted into that house?" Dean asked, picking up a chocolate éclair from the plate in front of him.

Ron and Caden both couldn't answer at the moment since their mouths were stuffed with their own desserts. Hermione turned from her conversation with Percy about the classes to join them in theirs.

"Well, I imagine it was because he had the qualities of a Slytherin." Dean grinned triumphantly. Hermione, noticing how that could be taken, hastily continued, "By that I mean ambition, cunningness, determination, and resourcefulness, Dean."

Caden blinked, knowing that Harry possessed most of those qualities. Even he, a generally ignorant person, noticed how Harry wanted more recognition as himself instead of his twin. Harry was always determined to be perfect, back at home, which had been one of the reasons why being a Parselmouth had bothered him so much.

He ignored the voice in his head that said that maybe, just maybe, Harry was sorted into Slytherin because he was a Parselmouth. 'Bugger off," he told it firmly. Caden himself had taken the longest to accept it-his mother being the first, then Neville and his Grandmother, then his father, and then he had finally accepted it, but it had taken a day. A whole bloody day. Even then, Sirius and Remus had had to come over and talk him out of one of his childhood beliefs. Now, though, Caden accepted that Harry was the same person, and surely if he could accept that particular magical gift, then he could accept Harry being sorted into Slytherin. It wasn't like he would turn evil upon first dining among the snakes.

"I won't trust him until I meet him; I've heard a lot of bad things about that house…" Dean trailed off and shook his head.

Caden opened his mouth to argue that Harry was completely trustworthy, but Hermione shushed him with a look that said 'It's hopeless', while piling more food onto the three boys' plates. She let out a sigh of relief as each of them grudgingly themselves to become distracted, managing not to glare daggers at one another.

Eventually, the trio managed to have a decent discussion with each other, though Caden still stubbornly spoke coldly to Dean. When Hermione confronted him about it, though, he Caden just told her it was because Dean didn't support his Quidditch team, the Falmouth Falcons, despite the fact that Ron didn't either, and Caden got along with _him_ perfectly fine.

Hermione just spared him an exasperated glance, proclaimed 'Boys!' and went back to eating her food neatly. Ron, on the other hand, quite enjoyed the food he was eating, and did not eat it as neatly, to Hermione's annoyance.

"Ronald!" Hermione scolded, interrupting some conversation between Caden and Ron, glaring at the latter. "I've had enough! I already had to put up with you eating sloppily for an _entire_ hour, would hour. Would you at least try not to gobble down your food and talk at the same time?"

"What are you, my mum?"

Caden, who was sitting next to Ron, groaned. Thankfully, before Ron could capture yet another éclair and provoke Hermione further, the food disappeared.

Hermione sighed in relief.

The hall went silent when Dumbledore stood. "Ahem. Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered." Caden watched his brother across the hall in curiosity; Harry had just jumped a bit and had suddenly turned around, seemingly having an argument with Draco Malfoy.

'_Never trust a Malfoy,' _his father's voice rang in his head. 'I'll ask him later,' he thought.

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do good to remember that as well." Toward the front of the table, Fred and George Weasley grinned at the Headmaster.

"I have also been asked by the caretaker, Mr. Filch, to remind you that no magic is to be used in the corridors," Dumbledore continued. Caden sniggered at the mention of the caretaker; he had heard many stories about him, and they all hadn't been very respectful, to say the least.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone who wishes to try out for their House teams should contact Madam Hooch."

Caden's mood lightened. He hadn't mentioned anything about first years being unable to play. Harry and Caden had always loved flying. Perhaps they could try out. Err...on second thought, maybe not Harry. The Gryffindors hadn't won the Quidditch House Cup in years, and any good Slytherin players shouldn't be able to play if the Gryffindors planned to win it this year. Caden smiled in amusement. It was very unlikely that he could get Harry to stop playing Quidditch for the sake of the Gryffindors.

"And finally, I must tell you that the third floor is off limits to anyone who wishes not to die a very painful death." The small part of Caden's mind paying attention recorded that as a fact of interest.

"And before we retire to our dormitories, let us sing the school song!" With a flick of his wand, a ribbon with the words of the song appeared above each of the four tables. Harry and Caden met each other's eyes across the hall, and promptly began singing to the same tune as they had earlier that day. Both frowned when they finished second-to-last, the Weasley twins holding the position they coveted. As if sharing thoughts, Harry and Caden promptly began belting a fast version of the song, drawing out the last word so they ended in unison with the Weasley twins.

"Off you trot now," Dumbledore dismissed them, eyes twinkling behind his half moon glasses.

* * *

><p>On the way out to the hall, Harry saw Neville on the other side of the Marble Staircase.<p>

"Neville!" Neville, talking to his Hufflepuff friends, didn't appear to hear him. "NEVILLE!" Neville seemed to have heard the dark haired boy this time, for he turned around, and upon seeing Harry, excused himself from his new friends.

"I'm not sure if I should be surprised or not by the fact that you're a Slytherin," Neville said, smiling slightly. Harry noticeably scowled at the words before dragging Neville to the side of the marble staircase, both ignoring the calls from their respective houses.

"I'm not a—"

"Oh, please. The hat only puts a person into a house where they belong. It took me ages to convince it that I had enough Hufflepuff traits; it wanted to put me in Gryffindor!" A burly fifth year Hufflepuff prefect stopped and looked at Neville oddly before continuing down the stairs to the Hufflepuff common room.

"The blasted hat wouldn't give me a choice!" Harry huffed, crossing his arms in indignation.

Neville blinked, not expecting that. "I wonder why it did that?"

"Hey! Move it!" a deep voice grunted before Harry could reply. Neville's friends instantly took it as a cue, pulling Neville towards the staircase that led down to the Hufflepuff common room.

"See you around, Neville." Harry said sadly. Neville nodded in reply, too busy being pushed by his new friends down the stairs to speak. Harry looked bitterly at his friend's retreating back. Being a _Hufflepuff _would have been better than a _Slytherin! _Sighing, he looked around for people with the same robe emblem as him, which was harder considering the majority of them had gone down to the Common Room, wherever it was.

A fleeting thought passed through his head when some Gryffindors passed by, laughing boisterously: to follow them. Surely the other Gryffindors wouldn't mind if Harry tagged along with them to their Common Room? In his heart, though, he knew that he couldn't. For one, his trunk would already be in the Slytherin dorms.

Secondly, _someone_ was bound to snitch on him if he stayed in the Gryffindor dorms for the night, and that might get the Headmaster, his Mum, and his Dad angry at him. Harry sighed mentally in disappointment, and continued his search for a Slytherin. He probably should have gone with the rest of his yearmates, but…

Harry eventually found himself following a bulky fifth year wizard who said quietly that his name was Conley Tripe, so softly that Harry had to ask him to repeat it, earning himself a dirty look from the prefect. As they walked through the turns of the dungeons, a couple of other upper years walked with them, conversations about such things like the O.W.L.'s (N.E.W.T.'s for the larger, older people walking with Tripe), new classes, and various, different opinionated comments about why Quirrell had switched from being the Muggle Studies Professor to the Defense Against the Dark Arts one. Some of the comments made Harry want to scream. Honestly, were Muggles that bad? He aimed a glare at the fifth year who had said the offending words, words: a tall, shifty looking Slytherin with large teeth.

After glaring at him, Harry decided to focus on trying to keep track of where they were going-A right turn after the stairs, then a left, then keep walking past the portrait with the grapevine and farmer, then another left-"Damn left-

"Damn it!" Harry tripped, swearing. He had missed one of the turns when he stumbled-had they turned left or right? Harry wished, for the millionth time, that night that he had been in Gryffindor, or at least with Neville in Hufflepuff. The Ravenclaws, frankly, seemed boring, as he saw them walking out of the Great Hall. On yet on the other hand, being with the Ravenclaws was better than being a Slytherin.

After a few more turns that led to a dead end hallway, Harry smiled in relief as Tripe stopped abruptly in front of a particularly plain part of the wall. "Metal Birth," the prefect said, revealing a door that slide open to reveal the Slytherin Common Room.

Walking down the set of seven stairs that led to the rest of the floor, Harry stared in fascination around him. Green and silver, obviously, were the primary colors in the dungeon. In a less complex room, Harry thought, the room could easily be described as green, silver, snakelike and intimidating, yet something about it made it very grand, even with the low ceiling and the dungeonesque aura it gave off. That made it impossible to describe in a few words, in Harry's opinion.

Hanging from the stone ceilings, which were adorned with beautiful Celtic glyphs were sea green lamps attached to the wall by metal chains. A silver chandelier brightened the room, even though it wasn't as bright as the lights in the Gryffindor Common room, from what Harry could remember. Under the grand chandelier were a cluster of upper year girls and boys, sitting comfortably on the emerald, cushy-looking sofas, each sofa decorated with flecks of silver scattered throughout the fabric.

That, paired with the silver trimmed edges, made the sofas look almost regal, somehow. Harry's eyes found themselves looking at a portrait of a proud looking man above the fireplace. The man couldn't have been older than forty, with sharp, grey eyes and a well trimmed, aristocratic dark, not graying beard, looking almost exactly like how his father was often pictured. In spindly handwriting under the portrait, whose eyes seemed to follow wherever Harry went, the name Cado Slytherin was labelled.

Harry shivered, the stories of the man and what he had done that separated the Muggleborns and Purebloods so far that for centuries there were few Half-blood's, both 'kinds' of wizards and witches refusing to 'lower themselves to the indignity as needed to produce a child of such blood'. It had given Harry nothing short of nightmares.

"Potter. Your dorms are that way." The prefect walked away then, leaving Harry alone to blink after him. As one of the students on the couch stood-Harry thought his name was Samson or something Avery-Harry walked towards the two doors on the other side of the room, suddenly feeling far too nervous about staying in the common room with the elder and notorious-looking Slytherins.

On the left door, the word 'Girls' was printed on a silver label and on the right, the word Boys was.

He walked through the door labelled 'Boys,' only to find a dark, stone hallway lit by lanterns (held in place by green and silver holders, of course).

There was an assortment of doors, the closest to the common room being those of the seventh years. When he finally reached the first years' dorm, he twisted the silver knob. Inside, his room-mates turned to him, each turning away in disinterest after seeing who it was.

"Oh, it's you," Malfoy said from the bed the farthest away from the door, and promptly went back to his almost one sided conversation with Gregory Goyle, a bulky boy with small, almost dull, eyes, and short hair that reached low on his forehead. Harry headed towards his bed, which was between the black boy with slanted eyes that he hadn't known the name of earlier and Crabbe's. On the other side of the black boy's bed-the name on the headrest said he was Blaise Zabini-was Theodore Nott, a weedy boy who was already sleeping. Harry remembered him as quietly ignoring any arguments that had developed between him and Malfoy during the opening Feast, but nothing else.

After changing in the adjoining bathroom-even that room was completely adorned with what seemed like only silver and green-Harry then climbed into his four poster bed and pulled the silver and green curtains on his bed closed for privacy.

'I'm going to hate Hogwarts, aren't I?' he thought.

* * *

><p><em>September<em>_ 2nd, __1991_

Back in Dovehall, James sighed after looking at the letter Caden had sent him. It wasn't too large of a surprise that Harry was a Slytherin; he was a Parselmouth, after all.

But despite that, despite the nagging in his head that had went off every time that Harry displayed fervent ambition, cunning, any of the Slytherin traits, he had thought-hoped-that Harry would be a Gryffindor.

Harry must have wanted to be different from his brother enough that the hat had decided to place him in Slytherin even through his unwillingness to be in that house. Well, if there was unwillingness. James, though he would never tell anyone, really, desperately hoped there was.

And if his hopes were true; if true—if Harry had truly not wanted to be in _that _house and it had sorted him in there anyway, anyway—then James absolutely hated the hat. It wasn't fair to Harry and to him. He had always insisted that the Slytherin house was bad, like he had about Parselmouths until Harry was discovered as one. And now James would have to try to erase the scathing words he had said about Slytherins, Snivellus-no, Snape and Voldemort, that the people of the house had turned rotten because of the dungeons, because of the darkness there.

It would be a pain, really. Harry was dead firm in his beliefs, and he did believe that Slytherins were bad people, if not evil. If he didn't believe he was evil himself, then that would be good but, he most definitely wouldn't make any friends in his house. James wasn't sure if he wanted Harry to make friends there, though. He'd heard some of the first years that would be, including a Malfoy, a Crabbe, a Goyle, a Nott, a Parkinson, and a Bulstrode. All of them would be brainwashed in the beliefs their parents, all supporters of the Dark Lord in some way, believed.

No, there wasn't any problem with Harry ignoring them. None at all. But as for the others who he could possibly be friends with, it would be hard to convince Harry, especially since he wouldn't have face to face contact with any of the people who had convinced him that he wasn't a bad person when he had been discovered to be a Parseltongue.

And then there was the fact that he had spoken badly about Slytherins since Harry had been a child.

James grumbled. For Lily, it would be easy; she was always supportive of Harry, and had hated his and Sirius's bad comments about the Snape and the Slytherins, anyway. Though she had never made up with Snape, she absolutely hated anything bad said about him. The only person she would have let them speak badly about at all after Harry was discovered as a Parselmouth , if they hadn't been firmly ignoring that they had ever knew that person, was Peter Pettigrew. And that was only so they would know that a person could be bad even if they weren't from Durmstrang or placed in Slytherin.

Sometimes, Lily was just too damn psychic for her own good.

James sighed again, spinning his chair in his study at Dovehall so it faced the desk, and began to write two letters: One to Harry, and one to Caden.

Inside Harry's, he enclosed a mirror that had been fondly hidden in one of his drawers. Lily wouldn't approve, but she need have to know, did she?

* * *

><p><strong>I bet you guys are happy with the fast update. I can't promise you that they will always be this fast, it depends on my writing muse appearing, my parents letting my type away and away, and my betas returning the documents to me quickly. Both are good with that though, so no worries there. <strong>

**I'd love for you guys to leave reviews. You don't have to, of course, but any reviews just make my day. **

**Oh, and Thanks to my betas: Hermoine Granger-Weasley and Cabin3Demigod. You guys rock! **

**-Revina **


	3. Insults, Letters, and Slimy Snakes

**Chapter 2: Insults, Letters, and Gits **

**A/N: Not many of the people who read the first chapter seemed to have read the second one, judging by the hits. So if you're here and thinking, "What second chapter?" I suggest you go back one. Oh, and if you're wondering, I posted around midnight the day I posted the Prologue.**

**Thanks, Hermoine Granger-Weasley, for betaing this for me! **

* * *

><p><em>September 2, 12:30 PM<em>

Harry sat in the Great Hall, again ignoring Draco's words. They never were particularly nice, or even decently nice in his opinion. Only in classes did he shut up, and even then Draco talked whenever he could.

It wasn't like anyone _liked _his voice. Except Pansy, who thought she was seemingly Draco's best friend. Everyone but her knew it wasn't true, that he just strung her along so she could do things for him.

It was quite pathetic, really.

Harry smiled at the thought of Draco practically ordering Pansy to fetch him a needle when his rolled off his table in Transfiguration that morning. He had seemingly been oblivious to McGonagall's glare at him.

Harry snapped out of his determined spacing out when he felt his owl, Hedwig, peck his hand, angrily hooting at him. He looked at the letter in the owl's claw in bewilderment; he hadn't sent anything to anyone!

"Thanks, girl. Here." Harry gave Hedwig a piece of bacon from his plate. He was rewarded with a hoot of happiness. After his owl left, he looked at the letter in surprise, noticing his father's handwriting scrawled on the front: Harry.

Ignoring Draco's insults for the first time that day and the mystery of why Hedwig had been in Dovehall, Harry opened the letter.

_September 2__nd__, 1991_

_Dear Harry, _

_No, if you even thought for a moment that I have anything against you for being sorted into Slytherin, then you are completely wrong. And if you even considered that your mother did, then you aren't thinking at all. You know your mother, with you every step of the way. _

_How's school so far? I do hope that Malfoy boy hasn't gotten you down, Caden mentioned in his letter that you seemed annoyed with him at the Welcoming Feast. Like father, like son, I like to say. And yes, that includes you, except you are somehow much less arrogant than I was in my day. I believed that I was on the top of the world, and that nobody could bring me down, back then. I still do, in a sense, but don't tell your mother that! _

_Oh, and don't throw away the envelope. Inside there's a shrunken and disillusioned mirror in it, one of the mirrors me and Sirius used to talk with during detentions. Just say my name any time you're in private, and I'll answer. I'd rather like to talk to you face to face, and after that I'll send Sirius's to Caden. I rather imagine that you and Caden would like more of a chance to talk. _

_To get it out, go to your dorm when nobody else is there, tap your wand on the envelope and say 'Finite.' It's a charm, and I think you'll be able to manage it, if you can' t, just keep the envelope safe in your trunk and send a message to me. I'll send a different way to unshrink it to you._

_Oh, and if you're wondering how Hedwig got the letter, she just showed up beside Hengist when he came in with a letter from Caden. I swear that your and Caden's owl think alike, or that Hedwig knew I was going to send a letter to you. _

_A rather smart owl you have, there. _

_-Love, Dad. _

_P.S. Don't even think about telling your mother about the mirrors. You're not supposed to even know about them_

After reading the letter, Harry sighed with relief. James didn't care, Lily didn't care, Caden and Neville didn't care, and now the only person to convince that it was okay to be a Slytherin was himself.

[]

Harry ran upstairs after swiftly eating lunch, ready to use the mirror that his father had given him. Running into his dorm, he slammed the door shut behind him only to find Blaise in their room, reading _Magical Drafts and Potions _by Phyllida Spore.

He jolted to a stop in puzzlement, confused as to why Blaise was reading their potions book. Why would _anyone _spend their free time reading a potions book?

Before he could ask, Blaise looked up from his book, "Potter."

"Zabini," he greeted, his tone obviously puzzled.

Blaise rolled his eyes. "Spit it out, Potter."

Harry grinned sheepishly. "Err…Why are you reading our Potions book?"

The black boy blinked. "Well, I like Potions, obviously. Is it that hard to comprehend, Potter?"

"Well, yes," Harry retorted. He _hated _being looked down upon. "Considering Potions was just Professor Snape droning on and on today. How can you find that _fun_?"

Blaise just looked at him. "I didn't say that Potions in Hogwarts was fun, Potter. Snape isn't known for having fun classes." He smirked. "I meant at home, when my mother sometimes lets me help her with the Potions she makes."

Harry blinked. He made Potions for fun with his mother? Harry had seen Lily making potions in the past, and it seemed, well, boring. "Well," he said slowly, "I suppose that's alright then." Looked down upon by Blaise or not, getting into an argument at the moment would ruin his chances of being able to talk to James before Herbology.

Blaise went back to reading. Harry shifted in his position, trying to figure out how to ask Blaise to leave. Eventually, he sighed and settled for, "Err…Zabini?"

"What, Potter?" he asked exasperatedly.

"Can you leave? I have some…err…homework to do and I can't focus anywhere unless no one is in the room." Inwardly, he winced. It was a pathetic excuse.

Blaise looked at him, his eyebrows raised. "I'll go. It'll get you to stop bugging me, anyway." Blaise walked out of the room, grabbing his schoolbag and walked out to the hallway. Once Harry couldn't hear his footsteps anymore, he grabbed the letter from his pocket. Walking over to his bed, he climbed in and closed the curtain around him.

"_Finite," _he said clearly. Nothing happened.

"_Finite,"_ he repeated. The letter gave a small glow, but other than that, nothing happened again.

Harry groaned and grabbed a paper to write a letter to his father. Using one of his books as a writing surface, he set his quill down on the parchment, ready to write.

_Dear Dad, _

_I can't get 'Finite' to work. _No, that made him sound…well…just not how he wanted to.

_Could you send me the other way to unshrink it? _

No, that wouldn't work either.

_I tried to get that charm you sent me to work, and I couldn't- _No!

Harry groaned and pointed his wand at the envelope again. "_Finite!" _he cast, imagining a mirror this time. To his surprise, the envelope glowed blue. When it stopped glowing a moment later, the envelope was torn due to the mirror which had enlargened.

Harry stared at it, remembering Professor Flitwick's words while they had been in charms class: 'One of the most important aspects of charms is intent. If are determined to make a charm work, it usually works better, and if you visualize what you want to happen, then it's even easier.'

Of course.

"Dad," he said to the mirror, feeling quite stupid.

An instant later, his reflection was replaced by his father's. James grinned when he saw Harry.

"Knew you could cast that charm. Normally, you learn it next year, but you're a smart kid."

Harry grinned in reply. "Yeah, it was easy. Guess I am quite smart, after all."

"Like father, like son."

Harry was rather enjoying the conversation, even if it was pointless. If took his mind off the fact that he was sitting on a Slytherin bed, in the Slytherin dorms, not to mention that he was wearing Slytherin robes. "I'm not sure I want to be like you, Dad…"

James grinned at the joke. "Ouch. Why not? I'm a handsome guy with money and a beautiful wife and kids, though I'll admit that one of them is quite annoying…"

"Well, it'll be Caden, of course. I'm not annoying, obviously."

Both James and Harry laughed.

"Now, really, Harry," James said. "How's school so far? Have you made any friends?"

Harry sighed. He liked the jokes better than the current conversation. "It's okay. I've been to Transfiguration, Charms, and Potions. I have around ten minutes before I have to go to Herbology…Say, where is that, anyway?"

"Harry, as much as I'd enjoy hearing what you thought of Sniv-Professor Snape's class, don't think I didn't notice how you didn't answer my last question."

Damn. He had noticed. Harry supposed that was what James had come to call about. Normally, it was easy to distract him. "Well, there are Ron and Hermione."

"What house are they in?" James asked patiently.

"Gryffindor," Harry mumbled.

"What was that?" James said, looking at Harry with a knowing look on his face.

Harry's previously good mood vanished, all the anger and annoyance that had been bottled up in him since his sorting replacing it. "Gryffindor, okay? No, I haven't made any friends in Slytherin, or any of the other houses but Hufflepuff and that's 'cause Neville went there, because he was able to choose to be in the house he wanted!"

James nodded in the mirror. "Ah. So Hogwarts isn't all fun for you, yet?"

"No, I'm a _Slytherin!_" Harry responded with a dirty look. James gave a small sigh.

"Damn. I shouldn't have said so many bad things about that house…"

"Well, why not? It's not like you ever _expected _I'd…I'd be a Slytherin."

James looked away from Harry guiltily.

"I can't have been…No….I'm not a Slytherin! The hats just…just….well, it was just wrong!"

James turned his gaze back on his son. "Yes, parts of me recognized your Slytherin traits after the day...well, one of the days when you were ten." Harry stiffened. Both of them knew that he meant the day Harry was discovered as a Parselmouth. Harry did _not _like snakes, and he especially didn't like the fact that he was a Speaker. He wished, desperately, that he could yell at his father at judging him because he was a Parselmouth before breathing in deeply, reminding himself that someone could possibly overhear, and that definitely wouldn't be good.

Harry ignored the part of his mind that told him that James wouldn't judge him because of that and that he had accepted it as soon as he had come down from his conversation with Lily. He had said that he would never judge him because of it and the love and devotion in his eyes proved he was speaking the truth when he said that.

"Dad…."

"Harry, you have to understand. Your mother was right, all these years. Being cunning, ambitious, determined, and resourceful doesn't make you bad. You have to accept that."

"No, I don't," Harry insisted stubbornly. His eyes brightened suddenly, and he jumped up, pushing open the curtains of his bed.

"Harry?"

"I can go to Professor Dumbledore! And he can let me switch to Gryffindor!"

James sighed. It was worse than he had thought. "Harry, you can't do that. Sirius's parents tried to make him switch to Slytherin, and the Headmaster said that nothing could change your house after your sorting. It's an old Hogwarts rule."

"And Sirius always said that rules were meant to be broken! Besides, I can't see Dumbledore _wanting _Sirius to go to Slytherin. He could have lied." Though he was arguing back, Harry's face lost its brightness, and he moved back to his old position, lying on his stomach on his bed looking at the mirror.

"Harry…I know you didn't want to be sorted into Slytherin. I haven't been the best role model for that with my constant jokes about them. I especially should have stopped once I realized that you could be a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff. I'm sorry, Harry, but don't ignore or look down on, even in your head, all your housemates simply because of some bigotry."

Harry looked at his father. "I don't do that," he lied.

James looked at his son in disappointment. "Harry, I know you better than that. Yes, you do."

"No, I don't. I have to go, Dad. How do you turn this thing off?"

"Harry…"

"Dad, I have to go. I have to get to Herbology." Harry ignored the fact that he _still _didn't know where Greenhouse 1 was and that he had a good ten minutes before his lunch break was over.

"Fine. I'll be sending your brother this mirror, by the way. You should be able to talk to him before you sleep, if the owl I'll be sending this with isn't stubborn. Just tap the left edge of the mirror three times with your index finger. It'll break our connection."

Harry smiled at his father, though it looked slightly fake. "Bye, Dad."

"Bye, Harry." Harry followed James's instructions, setting down the mirror when his own reflection appeared again.

Harry sighed, lying back on his bed. His Dad hadn't really helped his issue, much. Suddenly, his curtains were pushed open, and the face of Blaise Zabini appeared.

"Well, Potter. A two-way mirror? I thought those were banned, according to Filch."

Harry froze. Damn it! Blaise just _had _to come back, didn't he? "How much did you hear?"

"Enough. What did happen when you were ten, anyway?"

Harry paled. Blaise had heard a lot of his Slytherin bashing. Though he didn't like any of the Slytherins, they were all slimy snakes, after all, he knew that if they knew he had said those things, it wouldn't be good. "You won't snitch, will you?" Harry asked worriedly

"I might," he replied. "It would get me on Filch's good side, after all, as well as the Slytherins. And, why shouldn't I? The only reason I can think of is House loyalty, and you obviously don't show any of that."

"Zabini, shut up. You have no idea what I am going through. All my friends are in other houses, and my brother, too!"

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, suck it up, Potter! My best friend is in Italy right now, yes, I do know what you're going through!"

Harry blinked. He couldn't imagine Blaise, in the short time he had known him, to have a best friend. Or any of the other Slytherins, for that matter. He had just imagined them as slimy gits, not people who actually _cared_ for other people.

"Yes, you figured out that you're being completely melodramatic, didn't you? Don't think that the rest of us haven't noticed how you don't talk except for yelling at Malfoy. As annoying as he can get, you don't have to pick a fight with him every time, you know."

"Malfoy's a git."

"Obviously. But we're Slytherins. Deal with it. Pick a more creative way to make him shut up instead of simply egging him on—"

"I do not!"

He stared at Harry. "You really are thick, aren't you? He's encouraged by you. Malfoy likes fights, and you are fun to bait, to him. Ignore him, and he'll stop, eventually. That's what my mother always said about the Malfoys. They love to provoke people, but if you don't let yourself get baited, they get bored. "

Harry glared at him, choosing to ignore his words. "I don't know about you, but I need to get to Herbology."

"So you can't ignore him, but you can ignore me. I'm trying to help, here. I don't really like hearing you two bicker and bicker, you know," Blaise muttered behind Harry.

Harry ignored him and the voice in his head that said he was right.

[]

_Greenhouse 1, 2:00 PM_

"Welcome to Herbology." Harry felt Professor Sprout's eyes linger over him, and struggled to bite back his annoyance. "In this class, you will be working with plants that are not classified as dangerous and learning about those that are, such as Alihotsy, the hysteria plant, and Devil's Snare. You will not, no matter what others say, work in any other greenhouses this year." Harry noticed that some of the Ravenclaws seemed disappointed.

"Potter," Blaise whispered, prodding him with a stick. "Don't think I forgot about the mirror."

Harry stilled. He had, in his annoyance at Blaise, completely forgotten about that. "Zabini," he whispered back urgently. "You won't tell, will you?"

Harry could almost feel the smirk on the other boys face. "Perhaps if you do me a favor…"

Harry rather wanted to bang his head on the desk, and would have done so if it had not been for Professor Sprout's eyes drifting over them at the moment. "What do you want?" Harry asked tiredly.

"What did we talk about af—" Blaise suddenly cut off and turned around, eyes narrowed. "Parkinson. You do realize that Malfoy's laughing at you right now?" Harry snorted at Blaise's way of getting Pansy to stop attempting to eavesdrop. It wasn't true, of course, but it did the job.

"Now, do you remember what we were talking about after I saw _that_?" Harry grimaced at the choice of words; Blaise made it sound like he was wanking or something. Suddenly, Harry's eyes widened at what Blaise was suggesting, that he had to be nice to Draco.

"No. No, no, no, no. You can't make me…Just, no! I am not being nice to that bloody Death Eater!"

Blaise's eyes held a touch of amusement at Harry's reaction. "Please, I know I would be asking for an impossible task if I tried to ask for that. I'm not daft, you know. "

"Then what do you wa-" Harry turned and glared at Pansy behind him, who was apparently determined to figure out what they were saying. She retreated, returning his glare.

"Mister Potter! Turn around!" Harry ignored the smug smile on Pansy's face, managing to give an apologetic look to the Professor that she accepted with a nod. Harry instantly tuned out her lecture; it was all just an introduction to Herbology, anyway. Taking a quill out of his bag, Harry kept an eye on the Professor while slowly inking a note: _What do you want? _

Blaise smirked at the note. Taking his own quill, he wrote: _Stop getting into rows with Malfoy. Your penmanship is awful, by the way. _

Harry aimed a glare at the other boy before crumpling the note, deciding to ignore Blaise. It was rather hard to do, considering he placed a note on Harry's side of the desk a moment after.

The note read**: **_Potter. Don't ignore me. I'm serious, stop getting into rows with him, or I'll snitch._

Harry wished with all his heart that he had been more careful regarding the mirrors, so that he wouldn't be in situation his was in at the moment. _Fine_, he wrote back. Blaise smiled in satisfaction.

It would be a hard year, if Malfoy was intent on insulting his parents, Muggleborns, Neville, and Caden.

_Great Hall, Hogwarts. _

_September 2, 1991, 7:30 P.M._

"O-oh, l-l-look at m-me! I-I a-a-m P-p-professor Q-q-quirrell!" Malfoy laughed loudly at his impersonation, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle all following his lead. Others down the table rolled their eyes, but prevailed from saying anything. His father, after all, was Lucius Malfoy. It would _not _be good to upset the Malfoy's.

Harry, on the other hand, was just happy that it was nothing particularly insulting. If he got the mirror taken away, well, both James and Caden would be mad.

"Did you see Weasley today in defense? Really, him, Potter, and that Mudblood Granger are all such twats."

Harry gritted his teeth. It wasn't so bad yet…He could resist arguing back.

"I bet they think that they are better than everyone because they are friends with the Boy-Who-Lived. Please, that's just a stuffed up title."

Harry's eyebrow twitched. Yeah, Malfoy had thought that when he had come to them on the train and told them not to make friends with the wrong sort. Of course, him and Caden had told him to get stuffed.

"Isn't it, Potter?" Harry snapped out of his thoughts, glaring at Draco. He could feel Blaise's eyes on him, challenging him to say anything.

"Potter. Don't go ignoring me, now. I am a Malfoy, after all. We don't take very _kindly _to being ignored."

'Yeah, you just kill them all, you rotten Death Eater scu-' Harry thought, glaring daggers at the other boy.

"And your mother is a Mudblood, isn't she?" Draco wrinkled his nose. "What a shame."

Harry stood, abandoning his food. If he stayed for a moment later, then he would burst and get into the argument and then Blaise would snitch on him about his mirror.

"Abandoning a fight, are you Potter?" Draco called. "See, Potter. This is why you aren't a Gryffindor."

Harry stopped moving for a moment. It was true, he was being a coward and he wanted to prove he could be a Gryffindor.

But the mirror…

Harry kept walking, much to the Slytherin table's amusement.

"Why, you agree with me, then. Gryffindors are just rash, stupid, idiotic fools, and your brother is the epitome of them."

Harry decided he hated Blaise very much at that moment, and himself a bit too, for letting Blaise walk in and hear his conversation, and see the mirror.

'I _hate _them!' he thought.

Kicking the wall, he walked to the marble staircase and sat. "I don't _care _what Dad says about me having to make friends! If _none _of them will speak up, I don't _want _to make friends!" he muttered.

"When did you talk to Dad?"

Harry looked up at his brother's voice. "Earlier. Did you get the mirror yet?"

"Mirror?" Caden looked at his brother in confusion before shaking his head. "Harry, what just happened?"

"Malfoy. Bloody git."

Caden winced. Harry knew it was because Caden knew that he didn't curse out loud unless he was really angry.

"That bad, huh? What did he say?" Harry shook his head, not wanting to talk in case everything that was wrong came out. He was in Slytherin, Malfoy was a prat who couldn't keep his mouth shut, Blaise found out about the mirror…

Harry looked up to see Caden bite his lip, looking at him in worry.

"Caden…just leave it. Here, want to come up to the Owlery with me? Dad was supposed to send you the mirror…"

"Sure, let me just tell Ron and Hermione that—"Caden cut off at seeing Harry's face drop at hearing of Caden's friends. "You know, I think they'll be fine without me. Let's go."

"So, how's your school year so far?"

"Harry, we've been in Hogwarts for a day. There isn't much to say."

Caden frowned when he saw Harry sigh. "So, no one making any deal, _at all_, about you being the Boy-Who-Lived? " Harry said.

"Well…I didn't say that." They hadn't been making a big deal about that—yet. They _had _been making a big deal about Harry being in Slytherin, but considering the lack of the happy shine in his eyes that used to almost always be present, before they had come to Hogwarts, Caden felt it wouldn't help if he told him that.

"I mean, some people have been asking about my scar and Voldemort, but not as many as there were that day at Diagon Alley." Caden was happy to see the gleam come back into Harry's eyes for a moment, remembering better times.

"Yeah, guess they've got something else on their minds, don't they?" Caden felt himself wince.

Walking over to where his barn owl, Hengist, was perched, Caden replied, "Yeah. Classes and all."

His twin snorted."Yeah. Classes are so damn fascinating that even the only living survivor of the Killing Curse and the defeater of Voldemort is overshadowed. It's me, isn't it? I've heard whispers, at lunch, during my other classes. You don't have to lie, Caden," he said bitterly.

Caden scratched the back of his neck. "It's not—well, maybe it is, a bit, but it's not that bad…I mean, they don't like you much, but what they say isn't that bad…I mean, it's just because you're a Slytherin, but, err-"

"I get it, Caden. No need to sugar coat it. They hate me because I'm a dark, slimy Slytherin."

Caden frowned. "It's not because they think your dark! They just think you're like Mal—" Caden cut himself off. That would definitely not be the right thing to say.

Harry had caught it, though. "I'm like Malfoy? I'm _not_ like that stupid git!"

"No, you aren't! They just are being stupid…Come on, being a Slytherin can't be that bad, can it?" Caden knew that it probably was, judging by Harry's unhappiness after only a day at Hogwarts, but ignored that. He had to try and make Harry feel better, but Caden didn't know how to do it.

"Yeah," Harry agreed slowly, obviously not actually meaning it. "I wish I had been a Gryffindor, though." Caden was about to nod his agreement when a medium sized, grey-brown Ural Owl flew in, pecking Caden when it reached him.

"Lamorak!" Caden smiled in delight at seeing one of Dovehalls owls. The Potter's technically owned five owls, but only the owl that they had had at Godrics Hollow, Constantine, was actually theirs. Geoffrey, Lamorak, Aglovale, and Caelia all came and went to and from Dovehall as they wished. Occasionally, they would deliver a letter or two, only doing so if they felt like it. They were all temperamental and picky owls. Lamorak, for example, would only deliver letters to and from Caden, Aglovale to and from Harry, Geoffrey only delivered to and from James, and Caelia only delivered if she felt properly spoiled enough. They were all a part of the house, and didn't have an immediate obedience to their owners like an owl like Hedwig or Hengist would.

Lamorak held out his claw holding the letter out to Caden. Caden frowned upon seeing James's handwriting; he had already sent him a letter that day. What could be so important?

_Dear Caden, _

_Don't show this letter to your brother. _Caden, who had been about to let Harry read over his shoulder, pushed his brother away. "Wait, let me read it first," he said.

_I'm worried about him. He hasn't made an effort at making any friends in his house. Though it has only been a day, could you encourage him to make friends so perhaps the House of the Snakes won't be as bad of an experience for him? And please, please make anyone who is whispering about him be quiet! You can do whatever you want to, as long as you couldn't get in trouble with the law, which would be harder for you as the Boy-Who-Lived. You really would have to do something bad…_

_If you let your mother know I told you that, I will deny it and say you're trying to get me in trouble. I'm serious, Caden! _

_In here is a mirror. And, no you won't be able to find it. It's under a shrinking charm, and transfigured to look like the envelope, if you're wondering. Say 'Finite' at the envelope, pointing your wand at it. It should glow blue and turn into a mirror. If you can't do it, ask your brother. _

_Actually, just ask him how to use it. He knows how to well enough, and I don't want to put it in a letter just in case you get caught with it. Though Dumbledore probably will know that you two have these, I don't think he'll tell Filch. He didn't give them to Filch when Sirius and I got caught in our seventh year, after all._

_How's school? I've heard from Harry that you are friends with some people named Hermione and Ron. _

_Have you had potions yet? I know Harry has, but have you? Don't take any unfair treatment from Snape. It's a long story, but you know from the tales I was able to tell you and Harry about our school years without being yelled at by your mother that me and Snape don't exactly see eye to eye. _

_Sirius is laughing over my shoulder. 'That's an understatement!' he told me to tell you. _

_I'm surprised that he knows that word. It's four syllables, after all. Very good, Padfoot! _

_-Love, Dad. _

Caden let out a snort of laughter at the last words. It was just typical of Sirius to be there and for James to make some derogatory statement towards his friend, as a joke, of course. He let his eyes re-read the letter, and frowned. Harry hadn't made any friends, yet, apparently, but it was only the first day of school. Harry had never been as outgoing as he had and usually leaned on him when others were there and made friends that way.

But was it a bad thing, exactly, if Harry didn't make any friends in Slytherin? Yeah, Harry had to have _some _friends, but maybe they could be in Ravenclaw or something. Caden was pretty sure that Ravenclaw had a lot of classes with Slytherin, he had quite a few with Hufflepuff, so it made sense for that to be true. Maybe some of the Ravenclaws would be good friends for Harry because surely the Slytherins wouldn't be a very good influence on his brother.

Caden snapped out of his thoughts when Harry snapped two fingers in front of his face.

"Caden? Good, you're back to earth. So, did he give you the mirror?"

He nodded. "Oh, right. Should I do—"Caden stopped to look in the letter for the proper spell. "—Finite now, or in my dorms?"

Harry paused to think for a moment. "Well, you know how to use the mirror, right?"

Caden's eyes flickered over the letter again. "Dad told me to ask you."

"Of course he did," Harry muttered.

"Just 'Finite' it in your dorms, then, and remember to think of a mirror while you're doing it. Keep the mirror you tonight; I'll see if I can find a time to talk to you."

Caden was confused. "Talk to you?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Give me that letter…What did Dad tell you about it?" Caden's eyes widened as Harry reached for it, and his brain sent a message at him to move almost a moment too late.

His brother frowned. "Why can't I see it?"

"Err…I just don't want you to."

"Caden, what was in it?

"Err…Dad said some stuff to me that I don't want to share with you." Caden nearly glowed in triumph. Technically, it wasn't a lie.

"All right…" Harry looked suspicious, but apparently he was willing to drop it. "I have to go," he said.

"Okay. I'll stay up here for a bit. Bye, Harry."

Harry walked away, giving a small half wave to Caden.

_'_I just lied to my brother,' he thought. He'd never lied to Harry before. He'd avoided Harry's questions before, but it was never about something involving his twin!

He tried to tell himself it was for the best, and besides, Harry would be really mad at James if he showed him. One thing he knew about Harry was that he hated being talked about behind his back. After that day when Harry revealed he was a Parselmouth, he had been suspicious of everyone talking behind his back. It was only natural that he assumed the same now, but it pained him to know tha_t _it was actually true this time.

'I really hope that Harry makes some friends in Ravenclaw or something,_'_ he thought, stroking Lamorak's feathers.

"Potter."

Harry turned exasperatedly. It was rather annoying that he could tell when it was Blaise speaking, with his voice always tinted with sarcasm. "What, Zabini?"

"Good job today at dinner, ignoring Malfoy." Blaise gave Harry a brief smile. "He was right pissed that you hadn't reacted too violently to the bait."

Harry clenched his fists, glaring at Blaise. "I don't care, Zabini."

"Oh, please, Potter. You love getting Malfoy pissed at you, it seems, since apparently you can't stand not letting yourself argue with him."

"I do not!" Harry said angrily." I hate Malfoy, that stupid git."

"And there is some of your family's prejudices coming in. Honestly, you haven't known him for a week and you would think that he is your arch nemesis."

"Well, my family's prejudices are right! All the Malfoy's are stinking, slimy—"

Harry took the opportunity of Blaise looking around the hallway in alarm to slip past him and whisper 'Metal Birth' to the wall. When it opened, Harry looked back to see Blaise looking at him in exasperation. Quickly, he closed the common room door and briskly walked to the door that led to the boys dormitories.

"Potter, I'm sorry to admit that you aren't as fast of a runner as you seem to think." Blaise appeared behind him, a little out of breath but still determined to talk to him.

"Get lost, Zabini."

"I'm hurt, Potter. I was just trying to talk to you, and maybe, if you had been nice, I would have kept Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle away from the dorm for an hour so you could talk to your father."

'Damn him to hell,' Harry thought. He desperately wanted that time to talk to on the mirror, to Caden though, not his father. "Zabini…I…Merlin, _fine_. I'm sorry. Would you please keep them away for a bit?"

Blaise smiled in triumph. "Alright, Potter. I'll do that, just keep up our deal. Unlike you, I know how to handleMalfoy and that lot so they're manageable." Harry managed to keep his face impassive through the insult, to his delight. "I don't know what my mother was thinking," Blaise said under his breath, "making me socialize with them as a child."

Harry ran inside their dorm. Grabbing the mirror from his trunk, he lay down on his bed, ready to call Caden, hoping his brother had cast 'Finite' on the envelope already.

"Ca-" Harry paused. Leaving the mirror on his bed, he walked outside where Blaise was still standing, looking at him expectantly.

"Err…Thanks, Zabini." Harry gave him a grateful smile before walking back inside the room. Outside, Blaise nodded and walked back to the door leading to the common room, ready to distract the other Slytherins.

**Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! **

**Oh, and if any of you guys think that this could be considered pre-slash, it won't be. Blaise and Harry are just friends. There won't be any slash in this story, I think. There might be someone in the background, but none of the main characters are gay. **

**Reviews are highly appreciated.**


	4. Temper, Temper

**Thanks to those that reviewed and to Hermoine Granger-Weasley for betaing this for me! You rock! And shout out to Lily Fierros, who is a constant support to me.  
><strong>

**Chapter 3: Temper, temper.**

* * *

><p><em>September 12, 1991<em>

"So, he just ignores you? That is just unfair…" Harry said. Smiling bitterly from his side of the mirror to Caden, he added, "I hate Potions."

Caden paused, eyes shifting from the mirror to look around him to see if anyone was there. "Well, I, err, don't hate it," he said, causing Harry to furrow his eyebrows in confusion. "I just hate Snape, and that's just because he keeps picking on Ron and Hermione. Since I made the boil cure potion perfectly, he seems to have stopped picking on me."

Harry blinked. His brother liked _Potions_? 'Well,' he thought, 'at least he doesn't like Snape.'

"Snape's a git, isn't he?" Harry said. "Whenever we have a Slytherin only class, he always picks on me! And he always fails me too, even when I'm pretty sure I did well. He won't take off points, but he hates me. I hate Slytherin. It's just…" Harry trailed off, unable to think of the words to describe his current situation. Whenever Snape picked on him, Draco was always there, sniggering and making all sorts of rude comments. And of course, there was always Blaise, sitting next to him, looking at him, challenging him to take the bait and get the mirror taken away.

It was _annoying. _Harry just wanted to curse both Blaise and Draco into oblivion. 'If only Mum had let me buy that book, _Curses and Counter-Curses (Bewitch your Friends and Befuddle your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and much, much more), _life would be perfect. I'm pretty sure I can manage those spells, whatever they are,' he thought.

"Well, he has no qualms taking points away from Gry—"Caden said, interrupting his brother's thoughts.

Blaise stuck his head in the doorway. "Potter, they're coming."

"Wait, who was that? Harry?"

Harry jumped up from his bed, hastily murmuring, "Bye Caden, see you in Flying later." He tapped the left edge of the mirror thrice quickly, effectively cutting off Caden's question about who exactly knew about the mirrors. Harry hadn't told anyone that Blaise had found out.

Harry put the mirror in his trunk just in time. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle all walked in the room, heading to their respective trunks.

Draco paused to smirk at Harry. "Just getting ready now, Potter? A bit slow, aren't we?"

Harry smiled dryly to himself at the realization that he hadn't even felt the urge to argue back, that time. 'Damn you, Zabini,' he thought.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Aglovale," Harry said, petting the Barn Owl's feathers. Harry took the letter from his mother out of his claws, chuckling when it clicked its tongue at him. "Alright, here. Will a sausage do? I'm afraid I don't have any mice right now…" The owl looked at him in disapproval before flying off. Harry winced; usually Aglovale stayed until he wrote a reply. Apparently, that was related to Harry having food to give him.<p>

Harry opened the letter, tilting it so even Blaise sitting next to him, couldn't see it.

_Harry, _

_Yes, yes, I've been feeding Aglovale for you. Just now, I gave him a small white mouse I found running through the garden. And no, he doesn't mind me feeding him instead of you. Neither he nor Lamorak seem to, though Geoffrey seems to like pecking me when I try. Ah, well, James is still here. And Caelia…well, you know how she is. So stubborn. Yesterday I tried to feed her a mouse, and she started screeching at me._

_I think she's more stubborn than your father and Sirius combined. _

_Anyway, how's school? Stop avoiding our questions about it! When we write to you about that, we do look for an answer, you know, Harry. Have you made any friends yet? And how are your classes? Are your teachers good to you? Answer these, Harry. I __mean__ it. _

_Love, _

_Mum _

Harry groaned. There was no way he could get out of telling them all about how Hogwarts was for him. If he avoided the questions again, Harry was afraid that his mother would come into school and force the answers out of him. Harry sighed, setting the letter aside, and began eating. He scowled as Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle came in to the Great Hall and sat across from him.

Draco grinned at Harry as he saw the letter laying next to his plate. "A letter, Potter? I thought that your parents would have disowned you already." Harry continued eating his food, ignoring his yearmate for what seemed like to him the millionth time.

"Or maybe they did, after all. " Draco reached out and grabbed the letter from beside Harry. Harry spat out his food immediately, reaching across the table in panic in an attempt to get back the letter.

"Give it back, Malfoy!" Next to Harry, Blaise was digging through his robe pockets, looking for his wand.

"Wait, Potter," Draco drawled, eyes skimming over the letter. "I'm sure Vince and Greg want to hear what this says…" Harry clenched his fists in anger, still attempting to get the letter back.

"Anyway, how's school?" he mimicked, "Stop _avoiding_ your father and my questions about it! When we write to you about that, we do look for an answer, you know, Harry. Have you made any _friends_ yet? And how are your classes? Are your teachers good to you? Answer these, Harry. I _mean_ it." Draco doubled over in laughter before giving it to Pansy, who copied his laughter in her own shrieks of amusement.

Harry froze, mortified.

"Potter, you've got a wand, you idiot! Hex him!" Blaise whispered urgently in his ear. "I left mine in the dorms."

Harry blinked, before brandishing his wand. "_Sag_—"

"Potter, that is enough." Harry glared daggers at Snape, who had walked from his table upon seeing Harry reach for his wand. 'Stupid, slimy git, let me hex him you—' His thoughts were interrupted by Blaise prodding him with his handle of his fork harshly, as if to say: Don't make it worse.

"You will have a detention tomorrow with Mr. Filch." With that, the Head of Slytherin walked away.

Draco grinned at Harry, none too nicely. "What will Mummy think about you trying to hex another person? You should tell her in your letter back to her, along with you having no friends. We all know it's true; all your old friends hate you because you're in Slytherin. "

Harry's hand closed around his wand again, wishing will all his might that Snape wasn't watching him. "Shut _up_, Malfoy, you slimy git," Harry said, voice trembling in anger.

Harry stood and stormed out of the hall, his nails biting into his palms in an attempt to release his anger.

"Malfoy, you bloody idiot! Are you trying to get points taken away from Slytherin?" Blaise asked furiously after Harry left the Great Hall.

"Of course not! They wouldn't have taken points away. He's Potter's brother, after all. All of them are blinded about him, except for Snape, and he wouldn't take away points from Slytherin."

Blaise rolled his eyes. "Malfoy, piss off." Blaise reached to where the letter was lying, between Pansy and Theodore and took it. "We all know that you're just jealous that they wouldn't be friends with you, and that you want their fame."

Blaise's eyes darted to the door that Harry had disappeared through. Blaise stood, carefully tucking the letter in his robe's pocket, and walked out, intent on finding Harry before he did something stupid.

* * *

><p>"Potter!" Harry ignored Blaise. "Harry!"<p>

"What, Zabini? Come to rub in my face that I cracked? " Harry said, turning around. His nostrils were flared in anger and annoyance.

"Harry, you can at least call me by my first name, you know. It's not that hard, it's not even two syllables."

Harry rolled his eyes impatiently. "Why should I? Hell, I didn't even give you permission to call me by my first name."

"What permission do I need?" Blaise said exasperatedly. "You don't control me Potter, and you have no right to say that you do. I've been trying to help you, you know."

"I don't need your help! You're a Slytherin!" Harry shouted.

"And so are you, Harry!" Blaise wrung his hands. "You are a bloody Slytherin, no matter what you think! The hat obviously thought that you possess too many Slytherin qualities to fit into any other house, so just bloody accept it!"

"I am not! I may not be a Gryffindor, but I most certainly am not evil!"

Blaise froze before chuckling dryly. "Evil? Who said anything about evil? Even Malfoy's not evil, he's just annoying! My parents were even neutral in the last war; do you still think that I am evil?"

"Yes! You're a bloody Slytherin! Only Dark Wizards come from Slytherin!" Harry yelled in return.

"Oh, come off it, Harry! You are just in denial. You are a Slytherin, a bloody snake. No, that doesn't make you Slytherin himself, or You-Know-Who, or even a Dark Wizard! For Merlin's sake, I honestly doubt that you would even touch Dark Magic, judging by your stubbornness and denial about this whole thing. Hell, thank god you aren't a Parselmouth, who knows what you would do to the snakes? "

Harry paled, stuttering inarticulately. A moment later, he shook his head and the anger came back, all of it directed at Blaise instead of Draco that time. "Don't you ever even _compare_ me to them again, Zabini." Harry grabbed Blaise's wrist, tightening his hold until Blaise nodded.

Blaise stared after Harry's retreating back, averting his gaze when Harry turned the corner. 'I probably shouldn't have gotten that mad,' he thought, 'but I couldn't help it.' Harry was the most stubborn, frustrating, and least open-minded person he knew.

And he had, of course, been sorted into Slytherin, the place where all Harry's biases came together in one clump. Wringing his hands, he said the password and walked into the Slytherin common room, slamming the door behind him.

Peering from other end of the corridor, Caden looked on with wide eyes, frozen in his spot next to the wall that Harry had just passed. His brother must have been really angry not to even notice him when he passed by.

* * *

><p>Harry had barely calmed down by the time flying class came. In double Potions, he had dropped his cauldron, barely missing his foot. Snape hadn't even bothered to ignore him that time, criticizing his work and clumsiness in front of everyone, including the Gryffindors. Harry could feel his brother's worried gaze on him throughout the class, and deftly ignored the fact that his brother existed. It wasn't fair, he decided, that Caden could make the potion perfectly, and that Snape had walked passed Caden and Hermione's potion without bothering to give it a glance. He, however, had been ridiculed for stirring his potion too harshly, causing some of it to spill out of the cauldron.<p>

Blaise had just spared Harry a dirty glance after the potion had spilled, refusing to insult him. Apparently, Blaise had settled to giving Harry the silent treatment.

In Transfiguration, Harry had started to calm down, only to hear Malfoy whisper: 'That Longbottom boy is awful at this! Shouldn't have been sent to Hogwarts, the filthy squib' when Neville had gotten up for the fourth time to get another needle.

Harry, soon after that, had had to go up to get another needle. His own had exploded.

Harry hadn't bothered to eat lunch. Going back to the Great Hall probably meant that Draco would bait him again, and Harry had no wish to get another detention. He was already lucky that Snape had seen fit to assign his detention with Filch instead of him.

By Charms, Harry had calmed down a bit. They were working on charming different items red, and Harry found he was better at it than he usually was when he was mad. His banana had turned completely red instantly, and when he had to turn it back, it turned yellow easily. The third time his, along with a few other people's bananas, exploded in an orange blast, though.

Finally, Flying class came. Harry walked outside, the cool breeze calming him somewhat. Of course, the peace was lasted but a short time.

"Potter! It's a shame; I haven't had a chance to talk to you all day. Too scared of the big, bad food to show up at lunch? Even Zabini showed up, but he wasn't very talkative. Maybe he's finally learned his place."

Harry determinedly walked towards where the others were standing, Slytherins on one side and Gryffindors on the other, both sides glaring daggers at one another. The only people who weren't were Caden, Ron, and Hermione who were seemingly having some sort of argument.

"Potter, going to ignore me again? I'm just trying to help! I even came up with a reply to write back to your Mudblood mother—"

Harry froze and turned around angrily. "Malfoy, shut the hell up. You're just a whining pain in the arse." Harry looked at the other, his face molded into a deadly calm expression. It was just a mask, of course. Harry's anger was rising again.

"And _you're_ just the evil twin of the Boy-Who-Lived," Draco retorted.

Harry stiffened. He was _not._ "Well, at least I don't need to have bunch of people behind me to even talk to a person. Don't you have any self confidence?" Harry sneered, looking at Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle pointedly.

"I, at least, have_ friends_," Draco said, nevertheless motioning for his friends to leave.

Harry laughed. "Friends? They just follow you because you're rich. They'll all leave you, in the end."

"Just like Zabini did to you," he countered. "Don't think that I didn't notice how he's not hanging around you anymore, since breakfast. Must have finally gotten sick of your presence."

"If you were half the person you pretend to be, the eloquent, talented, Malfoy heir," Harry said with a sarcastic tone, "then you would have better things to do that follow my life all the time."

"Of course I do. You're just the son of a _Mudblood_, after all. Tell me, what's it like living with one? Are they really filthy creatures, or did we overestimate them? After all, they may be even worse than we thought." Harry's anger rose even more, his fury reaching the heights that it had that morning.

"Why," Harry said, unable to keep his voice from shaking, "Who is this 'we' you speak of? Is it you and your father? Or is it you, the sniveling Death Eaters, and Voldemort?"

Draco's eyes widened at the casualness at which Harry said the Dark Lord's name. "What about_ your_ father?" he said after the pause. "Such a shame, the heir of the Potter family marrying a Mudblood. It's such a waste of good blood and magic." Draco shook his head dramatically.

"Oh, yes, because both Mudblood's and Halfbloods are _such _a shame to society." Harry stepped closer to Draco, breathing noisily. "You would do good to remember that a half-blood _baby _defeated your precious Lord Voldemort!"

Both boys stared at each other, fury in both their gazes. Neither was composed or calm in the slightest. Rather, they were furious, their anger seeping out of their bodies.

Draco reached into his pocket for his wand, only to find that he had left it in his dorms.

Harry didn't bother with his wand. He remembered his father's lessons in muggle-style fighting from when they had been younger.

He slammed his fist into Draco's nose. 'Take that, you bloody git,' he thought triumphantly.

* * *

><p>"Caden, no, you're—"Ron was cut off by shrill laughter. He looked around in bewilderment to see Pansy laughing, only for her to suddenly cut off, looking to her right in worry.<p>

Blaise, across from them, looked at Pansy in suspicion. Abruptly, he stepped out of the Slytherin line and looked over it in frantically. "Bloody hell," Caden heard him say before he ran off towards where Pansy, Vince, and Greg were looking.

"What's going on?" Ron asked.

"I don't know, but it can't be good," Hermione replied, anxiously trying to peer around the line of Gryffindors to see what was going on.

Caden ignored both of them, trying to figure out what Blaise had been worried about. He paled as he realized that two of the Slytherins weren't there: Harry and Malfoy.

"Shit!" he cursed, running towards where Blaise had gone.

Once he saw them, Caden stumbled to a stop, shocked. Both Harry and Draco were rolling on the grass, attacking each other with gusto. Harry had never liked fighting much, and Malfoy didn't seem like the type to ever resort to muggle fighting methods.

"Harry! Stop it!" Caden called, ignoring the gasps of his yearmates behind him, all who had turned when Blaise, then Caden, had run to where Pansy was looking at. Though worried, Caden couldn't help but smile when Harry got a particularly good punch in.

"Pot-Harry! Listen to your brother, you idiot!" Blaise called after a particularly bad punch on Harry's part that opened up his nose for Draco to hit. Caden looked on in surprise. Judging by what he had seen of Harry and Blaise's argument that morning, he would have thought that Blaise would have been happy to let Harry get kicked and punched.

It appeared that there were some half-decent Slytherins, after all.

* * *

><p>Harry vaguely heard the cries of them to stop. He didn't listen; he was too angry and too determined to hurt Draco. He was so determined; in fact, that he barely noticed each time Draco hurt him, the various kicks and punches, the broken nose, or the blood running down because of the latter.<p>

He did notice, however, when he felt two arms grab his own and tug him off the other boy. Harry attempted to kick his captor, only to feel his legs go out beneath him because of a soft kick at the back of his knee.

"Sorry, Harry, but _stop_ it!" Caden scolded his brother. "I know that Malfoy's a git, but you'll be in huge trouble if you go fighting him every time."

"You didn't hear what he said! Now, let me _go_!" Harry said, managing to loosen Caden's grip on his arms.

"Oh, Potter. Looks like your brothers got you wrapped around his finger. I will never understand you Mud-"Draco cut off because of the surprise of Harry managing to break free of Caden, rushing to attack him again. Blaise, restraining the other boy, let go when Draco pushed, shocked that Harry had been able to break free of his brother's grip. Caden was taller, after all.

"Take that back, you shitfaced tosser!" Harry growled, attacking Draco again. The other boy laughed at him and grabbed Harry's wand, a sturdy linden wood wand with a dragon heartstring core, from where it had fallen out of Harry's robes during their fight.

"_Steleus!" _Harry was overcome with a fit of sneezes, which wasn't pleasant at all considering the broken nose that he had. Draco laughed at him through his own, occasionally wincing in pain.

Harry growled at his opponent. Caden and Blaise backed up, both fearful of what the two would do.

Harry dived at Draco, ignoring his sneezing and the pain in his nose when Draco managed to hit it again. Harry punched the retreating Draco, who didn't want to be hit by Harry's blood filled sneezes, and tried to get a hold of his wand so he could try casting the Arrow Wand charm, the charm he had tried to cast at Draco during breakfast. He had read about the said charm in _Curses and Counter-Curses _while he was in Flourish and Blots.

"_Sagitt—" _

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy, come with me this instant!" Minerva McGonagall was standing next to a sheepish looking Hermione, looking alight with fury at the fight that had happened. Both boys instantly stood, looking at their Professor with a tint of worry at what she would do. She looked over them in disgust, noting the grass stains and blood covering both of them. "_Finite. Episkey." _Harry looked at her with as much gratefulness he could manage, happy that he had stopped sneezing and his broken nose was fixed. Malfoy touched his nose gingerly before nodding at his professor. "No, go Madam Pomfrey then meet me in Professor Snape's office. Mr. Zabini, if you would escort them."Blaise nodded in reply, deftly picking the wand out of Harry's hand and shooting him a reprimanding look.

* * *

><p>"You two are both idiots," Blaise announced to Harry and Draco as they walked to the Hospital Wing.<p>

"It was his fault, Zabini!" Harry said stubbornly.

"It was not, if he hadn't been in my presen—"

"Shut up, both of you! Do you know how many points you two probably just got taken away? McGonagall was the teacher that Granger got, remember? And she _hates _fighting!"

Both Harry and Draco stubbornly stayed silent. Harry had crossed his arms and had a sullen glower aimed at nothing in particular, and Draco had thrust his chin upwards.

"You two are bloody idiots," Blaise repeated. "Malfoy, stop baiting Harry, and Harry stop bloody listening to him!"

"You didn't hear what he said!"

"No, I didn't!" Blaise looked at Harry scoldingly. "It doesn't matter, actually. You still did respond to Draco's baits." He gave Harry a significant glance

Harry's eyes widened. Blaise wouldn't snitch, would he? "Zab—Blaise. Just—"

"I don't care, Potter!"he interrupted. "Just…of you get healed then go and get points taken off by McGonagall and Snape." Blaise knocked on the hospital wing doors.

"Madam Pomfrey, Malfoy and Potter here got into a fight. Mc-Professor McGonagall told me to escort them here and then bring them to Professor Snape's office." Blaise pushed the other two a bit so their toes had crossed the border into the Hospital Wing. Both stepped in, heads raised as if to prove that they did nothing wrong.

"A fight, you said?" The matron clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "Well, come on here, you two."

Blaise sat down on one of the chairs in the Hospital wing, rolling his eyes at the Matron bustling around both of them, casting 'Tergeo' to clean up the blood and grass stains.

'She clucks her tongue too much,' he thought in annoyance as he heard the noise again.

"Are they done yet, Madam Pomfrey? I'd like to go back to my dorms soon…," he hinted. Blaise didn't like the hospital wing very much.

"In a moment, Mister…"

"Zabini."

"Yes, yes, you're a nice boy, Mr. Zabini, bringing your friends up here—"Blaise didn't bother to correct her about the 'friends' part, too busy keeping himself from rolling his eyes and focusing on tuning out her voice.

After a few more minutes of fussing, Blaise sighed in relief when she finally stepped back and put her wand by her side. "Go now, you don't want to keep your professors waiting," the Matron dismissed them. Blaise sighed in relief, sniggering mentally when he saw that she hadn't bothered to heal their eyes. Blaise knew from watching a muggle show with his cousin, Talisa, that the slightly reddened area surrounding their eyes would turn a black and blue by the next day.

Blaise stood, motioning for the other two to follow him. Both did grudgingly, their bad moods still obviously present.

* * *

><p>Harry peered into his dorm. Upon seeing only Blaise there, sitting on his bed, reading, he walked in. "Zabini?"<p>

Harry found himself being ignored. "Zabini?" Harry gulped and took another step into the dorm. "Blaise?"

Blaise looked up, faintly surprised at hearing Harry call him by his first name. "Potter."

Harry winced. "Err...Blaise, I'm sorry that that I lost my temper with you earlier."

Blaise smiled internally. Perhaps Harry wasn't incorrigible, after all. "Are you, now," he said.

"Err…yeah, I am. I'm not sorry about the Malfoy thing both times today, though, I'd have to apologize to him to do that and I will _never _do that." Harry considered saying that Blaise had been the one to suggest hexing Draco during breakfast, but decided to omit it.

Blaise sighed, knowing it was the best he could get from Harry. "Fine."

Harry seemed to be a bit nervous, with his downcast eyes. "And, err, I'd like to, err, be friends with you if that's alright."

Blaise raised his eyebrows. "You want to be friends with an evil, slimy, Slytherin? Why, I never thought the day would come."

"I said I was sor—"Harry started, eyebrows furrowed.

Blaise hopped out of his bed, walking to his trunk. "Don't bother, Harry," he interrupted. "Oh, and here's the letter that Malfoy took from you earlier," Blaise said upon finding it. He handed it to Harry and smiled.

Harry grinned in return. "Thanks, Blaise."

* * *

><p><em>Dear Mum, <em>

_Thanks for feeding Aglovale! I know he usually hunts by himself, but I remember him pecking me awake quite a few times so he wouldn't have to bother. Lazy owl. Hedwig is much less lazy, I think, though she pecks me unless I give her bacon in the morning. Picky, that owl. _

_School is…okay. Snape doesn't like me much. It's unfair; me and Caden are treated differently. Did you know that Caden is apparently good at potions? Him and Hermione never get yelled at (for their potions, anyway), they're the only other ones than Draco Malfoy. _

_And, err, your probably are going to get a letter from Professor Snape because we sort of got in to a fight. Me and Malfoy, I mean, if that's not clear enough. McGonagall and Snape are each taking turns with our detentions, we have them until end of term every Friday. I was told that I should to tell you that I had one with Filch on Friday already, so the first one for me starts Saturday. And we got fifty points taken away from Slytherin by McGonagall, of course. Snape would never take off points, I think he was glaring at her when she said that. _

_Err…Sorry?_

_Yeah, I made a friend, Blaise Zabini. He's…nice, in his own way, but always talks sarcastically. It's really amusing sometimes, but when I'm angry, it doesn't help my mood very much. _

_-Harry _

* * *

><p><strong>So, how was this chapter? I got mad while writing it, it was a bit explosive, don't you think? <strong>

**Oh, and I do reply to all of your reviews, if you didn't know. Unless they only say something like 'Update.' There really isn't anything to reply to that but an actual update, so…. **

**Review, please! Don't worry; it won't kill you to tap that review button. Those things make my day. **


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